The Society of Dread (8 page)

‘It’s like I’m seeing the earth’s plumbing,’ said Theo. ‘What are these pipes for?’

The crelp hissed among themselves.

‘The crelp don’t knowing that,’ one of the creatures said. ‘And the crelp don’t – what is the word for it – we don’t care.’

Theo was fascinated by this evidence of some gigantic scheme of building work that went far below the city.

‘But you live down here, you must know something.’

‘The crelp do – are not living down here. Not usually. Our kind – many, many – are living in the darkness of the Chasm. A horror place – horrid.’

‘So what are you doing here?’ Theo asked. ‘Creeping around, attacking people. You won’t make many friends that way.’

There was something almost childish about the crelp that made Theo want to scold them.

‘The crelp don’t wanting to make friends,’ one of the creatures hissed. ‘We are only being here because we were released from the darkness.’

‘Released?’ Theo echoed. ‘How? By who?’

The crelp bubbled and hissed for a while among themselves.

‘It is not worthy – worth while crelp telling you.
We will probably tricking you soon and make you die. It is better.’

Theo frowned.

The crelp are wicked and innocent at the same time,
he thought.
Perhaps I can get through to them.

‘The crelp should be more friendly,’ Theo said firmly. ‘You should answer questions and tell people things.’ He continued to follow the creatures as they slithered along the rock gallery towards a stone arch ahead. ‘That’s more polite. Don’t you have any manners down here? You are doing terrible things now, things that we, on the surface, don’t do at all.’

Several of the crelp surrounded Theo for a moment, gliding on their feelers in an almost dance-like fashion.

‘The crelp liking doing terrible things,’ one said. ‘We were a long time in the darkness with only each other to feed on. Now we have – having – new ones to kill and eat – it is very nice.’

Theo frowned. A thought suddenly occurred to him. ‘And why are you taking bones out of
graveyards? That’s something else we don’t do.’

The crelp gave a long crackling hiss that was almost a nasty laugh. ‘We have other plans, Human Theo. More horrible. Too horrible to tell, but very nice for us.’

Theo sighed. The crelp really were hopeless. As he reached the end of the rock gallery, Theo began to lose sight of the enormous pipes.

‘I wonder if those pipes connect up somehow to the alchemical city in the Well Chamber?’ he mused. The crelp simmered with discontent as he pulled out the crumpled network map and pondered it.

‘The rocket capsule sent me down to Level Five, here,’ he murmured. ‘The Well Chamber is Level Three, so these pipes aren’t actually shown on the map. Unless . . .’

Theo gasped. There were faint, pink marks that appeared all around the map, occasional details appearing to link them to a mysterious section in the unexplored Level Four.

‘Unless the pipes are indicated by the
pink outline – in which case they are utterly, stupendously enormous . . .’

‘This way, this way,’ urged the crelp. ‘It doesn’t matter. Theo dead soon, won’t care about it.’

Theo hurried after the crelp. He felt ashamed.
It’s a very great fault of mine that I find maps and diagrams so interesting,
he chided himself,
when I’m supposed to be rescuing my friends.

‘Now you will be our friend,’ the crelp said. ‘Here is the larder.’

At first, Theo saw nothing. Then as his gaze followed the path of the crelp, he began to make out a curious stone dwelling, a refuge with a single narrow door and no windows, cunningly built into a natural cleft in the cavern wall. It looked like some ancient secret hideaway – or prison.

Theo approached cautiously, but there seemed to be no sign of life.

‘You will open it,’ one of the crelp said. Several feelers probed helplessly at the door, but it was too tightly sealed to allow even those insidious creatures any way in.

Why do they call it the larder?
Theo wondered. A nasty suspicion dawned in his mind.

‘Look,’ said Theo. Several eyes sprouted up around him on jelly-like stalks, as if the crelp were only too keen to do so. ‘You’re supposed to be helping me. I want to know if you’ve seen any other humans down here –’

Theo stopped. He thought he had heard a movement beyond the closed door. He bent his head closer to listen.

‘Is – is there someone there?’ called a voice.

Theo stood back, astonished. His heart almost exploded with joy and relief.

‘Chloe!’ he cried out.

‘Theo? Is that you?’

The crelp were seething excitedly around Theo’s feet and he had to kick one of them away.

‘Are you a prisoner?’ Theo asked. ‘Can you get out?’

Before a reply could come, the crelp interrupted. ‘Human Theo, you – you will open the larder for us?’

Theo ignored this.

‘Where are the creatures?’ Chloe shouted.

‘It’s all right,’ said Theo. ‘There’s been a mistake.’ He looked down at the crelp. ‘A mistake, right?’

‘Yes, yes,’ the crelp agreed eagerly. ‘Mistake, Theo, mistake!’

‘If the creatures have gone – get me out!’ Chloe said, unable to tell what was going on outside.

Theo studied the door. There was a strange stone carving, a half-moon shape, in a recess by the door.

‘I’m locked in here,’ Chloe shouted. Theo pondered. Then he raised his hand and placed it on the half-moon shape that appeared to be a kind of lock.

The rare energy inside me: the
tripudon
power. It can melt things, but it can also cause changes,
Theo thought.
Perhaps a tiny spark
. . .

Theo had never tried to use his power on something like this before. He concentrated, pressed the half-moon symbol and tried to summon up the mysterious
tripudon
fire.

Nothing happened.

‘Come on, Theo, I’ve been stuck here all night!’

The anxiety in Chloe’s voice seemed to kindle something inside Theo. Suddenly his fingers sparked. The half-moon symbol glowed and sank inwards. There was the harsh
clack
of a hidden lock. The door was open.

‘Thank you,’ said the crelp.

Suddenly a pack of seething jelly-forms rushed at the door and started to squeeze into the crack, forcing it wider.

‘No!’ screamed Theo.

The crelp paid no attention. ‘Now we feed,’ they cried. ‘Later, we harvest the bones!’

‘It
was
a mistake,’ another crelp screeched. ‘Mistake to let her get inside and escape us.’

Theo whirled around, facing the bubbling horde. ‘No!’ he screamed.

T
heo touched the leading crelp just before it could force its way through the door.

Thwoom!
It disappeared in a streak of blue smoke. Thorny creepers tugged at Theo’s legs and hauled him over. He smashed his forehead against a rock, and started to bleed.

‘Theo!’

He could hear Chloe crying out. The crelp were getting in.

Fwoom! Blam! Boom!
Theo lashed out wildly at every crelp he could get his hands on. He struggled back to the door through smoking, wailing, exploding pools of jelly.

He hurled himself through the half-open door, turned around and slammed it shut. He leant against the door, breathing heavily. Outside, everything had gone quiet.

‘I – think it’s all right,’ Theo panted.

Chloe was there, her hair dirty and ruffled, her big navy blue coat torn, with a pocket hanging off, her face drawn and pale.

‘Nice use of the word “all right”,’ Chloe said, with a smile. ‘We’re trapped beneath the ground, surrounded by flesh-eating monsters, and –’

‘And what?’

‘And I’ve never been so pleased to see you in my life! But wait – you’re hurt.’

Only now did Theo realise that warm blood was trickling down his face. Chloe studied the wound, her head cocked to one side.

‘Gory looking, but not serious,’ she said brightly. ‘Kind of suits you.’

Theo smiled. ‘Does it?’

‘No, of course not,’ said Chloe. ‘I’m just trying to make you feel better, you twit. We’d better bandage it up.’

Theo smiled again. It was great to have Chloe back.

Chloe tore a sleeve off the pale blue shirt she
was wearing and tied it around Theo’s head. She admired the finished effect.

‘A real wounded hero,’ she grinned.

‘But what happened to you?’ Theo asked. ‘How did you end up in here?’

Chloe sat down on a stone ledge. Theo peered around. They seemed to be in some ancient workroom or lab.

‘An old alchemist’s refuge by the looks of it,’ Chloe said. ‘It may even have belonged to the original Philanthropist. Make yourself at home.’

Theo looked at the rows of clay pots along the shelves. Many of the walls had ancient symbols scratched into them. There was even a pump of some kind, and a water basin.

‘The crelp snatched me from that graveyard,’ Chloe said, ‘dragged me down to these caves, and then they started to argue among themselves. They were torn between taking me to be a slave or eating me. They were very upfront about it though. Refreshingly frank.’

‘They are!’ said Theo with a sudden smile.
‘Mostly. Except they’ve got some horrible secret, they said – some plan too nasty to tell.’

‘Great,’ groaned Chloe, rolling her eyes. ‘It gets better! Anyway, they had just decided to eat me when your friend the garghoul dropped by. Seems he had been tracking them. Tristus swooped down and carried me to this refuge, where they couldn’t get at me. Then he said he needed to fly to the source of the problem straight away, and couldn’t take me with him.’

‘So did he talk to you?’ Theo asked.

‘Not exactly. Apparently garghouls are very picky about who they communicate with. He kind of muttered things mysteriously and flew off. Well, I’m used to being treated like that – being in a secret society with Magnus. Anyway, Mr Tristus said he’d come back for me.’ Chloe looked tired now, and anxious. ‘But he never did.’

‘He said the same to me too,’ Theo said. ‘I hope he’s all right.’

‘Oh, he’ll be all right,’ she said. ‘They’re made of stone, aren’t they? What I really want to
know is how the incredible Candle Man came and saved me!’

Theo suddenly felt ten feet tall. He related his tale, patiently answering Chloe’s barrage of questions. She frowned deeply when she learnt how Sam and Magnus had disappeared.

‘Basically, nobody is safe with these crelp things running around,’ Chloe remarked. ‘As I said – they either eat you, or drag you off to be a slave.’

‘A slave for who? For what?’

‘Find out that and I’m guessing we’ll find Sam and Magnus,’ Chloe said. ‘Did you get all of them?’ she asked suddenly.

‘I hope so.’

‘Well, we can’t hide in here forever. Let’s take a look.’

Theo opened the refuge door and led the way out, his hands aglow, ready for the first sign of a tentacled enemy. Dead crelp lay smouldering and bubbling around the entrance, but no living creatures to be seen.

‘Where are we going?’ asked Theo.

‘Into danger, of course,’ Chloe said, her glance darting from side to side as she left the refuge. ‘Stay vigilant!’

‘Bring him!’

The faceless figure, tall and dark, in ragged garb, sat in his command chair, surrounded by control panels, pistons and gear wheels: the gleaming instruments of ancient alchemy. Wisps of black smoke curled up from cracks in his ashen skin. In that ghastly head, deep, dark sockets showed a glint of moist eyeball.

‘I want the old man, now!’ rasped the broken, painful voice. Two thorny, aged crelp seethed and fluttered their tendrils at his feet.

From the doorway emerged Queasley, the one-eyed Sewer Rat, prodding Magnus with his staff. The old cemetery keeper heaved his bony frame along on his two walking sticks. With grim resolution the old man navigated his way slowly through the glittering dials, spinning iron wheels and screeching pressure valves that filled this, the
top of the central tower in the Great Furnace.

The control centre had no roof and was open to the airs of the cavern, and the giant chimney, built of immense stone blocks, towered above them in the darkness, belching stinking smoke. Flecks of ash danced in the air and rained down on the shining control stations, but no one seemed to care.

Hollister and Queasley, staffs in hand, flanked Magnus as he was presented to their master.

Magnus gazed at the faceless man, still struck with disbelief.

‘Dr Pyre,’ he breathed. ‘How can you be here . . . now? You died many, many years ago!’

The faceless man’s eyes flashed, as if they might spontaneously combust at any moment and take his whole head up in a grisly bonfire.

‘It appears not,’ he growled. He paused. A faraway look came over his ravaged features. For a moment his harsh voice sank to a whisper. ‘These are strange days indeed,’ he began. ‘To the denizens of this underworld, the slinking smoglodytes and
the sly garghouls, the whole human era is known as the
Aftertime.
They speak as if our whole age is but an afterthought of creation. Well, it seems that Dr Pyre, too, has been allowed Aftertime.’

Magnus gave the ashen man a deep, penetrating look, as if searching for something only he could see.

‘What year is it?’ Dr Pyre asked suddenly.

Magnus told him. The faceless man nodded.

‘I see,’ he said in a strange soft tone that seemed filled with sadness.

‘But, Master, why do you believe him – and not us?’ asked Queasley. ‘We found you in the tunnels, we’re the ones who follow you!’

‘Because,’ Dr Pyre roared suddenly, ‘this is a world of lies!’

Dr Pyre cupped his hand and let a small fire crackle there. ‘This is a world that deserves to burn.’

The two Sewer Rats laughed coldly at this and raised their staffs in salute at the sentiment.

‘Back in the old days – the ones you now call Victorian,’ Dr Pyre said, ‘we used to say
that when a man bought a newspaper, the only truth it reliably contained was the date on the front page.’

Queasley nodded. ‘Yes, yes – very good, sir!’