Mirrorscape (17 page)

‘No, I mean it's been created by another artist.'

‘It's a very subtle difference,' said Wren. ‘What makes you so sure?'

‘Texture. Brushwork. Technique. Whatever you like to call it, it's different.'

‘You've missed the most important thing,' said Ludo.

‘What's that?'

‘Subject matter. The master's never painted anything like that.'

Before them towered an enormous green pyramid. It was so high that wispy clouds clung to the side here
and there and the top seemed to be dusted with snow. All around it the Mirrorscape was as flat and plush as a well-tended lawn and dotted with weirdly shaped trees or large bushes. Mel fished out the telescope and studied the pyramid before he handed it to Wren. ‘What do you make of that?'

‘Those steps are like terraces. They go all the way up,' observed Wren. ‘Here, what can you make out, Ludo?'

‘All that vegetation around it is formed from clipped bushes and trees. Topiary. They've been shaped like monsters or huge, deformed heads.'

The telescope was returned to Mel and he raised it to his eye again and idly twiddled one of the knobs. The image in the device grew dramatically. ‘That's a good trick. This thing's got a knob that makes things appear closer. Hey, that's no ordinary pyramid.'

‘So what's an
ordinary
pyramid?' said Ludo.

‘You know what I mean. This one's a skegging great maze! A three-dimensional maze. The sides are made from some kind of clipped, evergreen plant. And the giant footprints lead right up to it.'

They set off across the Mirrorscape but stopped after only a short way.

‘Where's Ludo got to now?' asked Mel.

‘Perhaps it was something he ate?' said Wren. ‘Ludo!'

‘I'm coming. I just had to look at those topiary heads again.'

‘Gardening a new hobby of yours, is it?' she asked.

‘Just interested.'

They arrived at the great arch that formed the entrance to the pyramid-maze. It was guarded by two giant topiary monsters that towered above them.

‘It looks like the house stopped here,' observed Mel.

‘Do you think it went inside?' asked Wren.

‘There's no sign,' said Ludo. ‘Something as big as a house couldn't get under that arch. And it couldn't have leapt over. Maybe it went around the outside.'

‘You two wait here. I'll go and see if I can find any tracks.' Mel placed his satchel on the ground and followed the wall of the maze.

‘See any, Mel?' called Ludo.

‘That's odd!' said Mel.

They turned around at the sound of his voice and saw him coming towards them from the other direction.

‘
Mel?
' Wren quickly turned and saw him walking away from them. He slowly became indistinct until he vanished. She turned back and looked at him again. ‘Did you see
that
?'

‘I saw it but I still don't believe it,' said Ludo. ‘How'd you do that, Mel?'

‘I didn't do anything. I was going that way and then you two appeared in front of me and I found myself back here.' He scratched his head.

‘I don't like this place,' said Ludo.

‘Let me have a go in the other direction.' Wren walked off and slowly disappeared, reappearing from the other side. ‘It's just like you said, Mel.'

Ludo had to try it before they became convinced. ‘Well, if we're not able to go around, then neither was the house. It must have gone inside.'

They stepped through the arch into the labyrinth and looked to the right and the left. Both directions looked identical and the dead-straight path seemed to stretch away to infinity. It must have been miles long
either way. They turned left and began walking. At regular intervals they passed tall lamp posts, but otherwise there was nothing to indicate how far they had gone.

‘Listen. Did you hear that?' asked Wren.

‘Hear what?' said Mel.

‘Are you sure you didn't? Like a faint, low boom.'

‘You're cracking up,' said Ludo.

After they had walked for about a mile he stopped. ‘Look, this is hopeless. It just goes on forever. All we seem to be doing is walking around the base of the pyramid. We can't even see the end.'

Mel got the telescope out and looked down the path. ‘Hang on, there's something up ahead. Let's take a look.'

It turned out to be a broad ladder. They climbed it and found themselves on another path identical to the first.

‘See if you can find another ladder,' said Wren. ‘At least that would take us further through the maze.'

‘Let's see.' Mel raised the telescope to his eye. ‘
What the
…
!
'

‘What is it, Mel? Is it another ladder?' asked Wren.

‘Yes. But not only that. It's
us
! See for yourselves.'

‘Us? What do you mean
us
?' Wren took the telescope and saw the three of them in the distance. ‘You're right. Here, Ludo, you take a look.'

‘This gives me the creeps,' said Ludo, handing back the telescope.

‘Me too. But at least we know there's another ladder down there. Come on.'

Mel led them towards the distant ladder. It took a while, but when they got there he had an idea. ‘I wonder ….' He raised the telescope to his eye and looked back the way they'd come. ‘It's us all right. Just as we were a little while ago when we saw … us.'

When they reached the next level, Mel surveyed the maze in both directions. He saw himself, still a great way off, waving.

When they finally reached that spot they found another ladder. Before they climbed it, he said, ‘Just a minute, there's something I need to do.' He waved back down the pathway.

‘Now
he's
going off his rocker, too,' said Ludo.

At the top of that ladder, Mel said, ‘If my theory's right, then we should see ourselves at the next ladder.' He looked in both directions with the telescope but the path was deserted.

‘So much for your great theory,' said Ludo.

‘I've been thinking about this,' said Wren. ‘Time seems to be trapped in here somehow. It's as if ….
There!
Did you hear that deep boom? I'm sure it's coming from inside the pyramid.'

‘There's no sound,' said Mel. ‘At least, none that I heard.'

‘If you didn't hear that, then your ears need washing. Both of you. Now, time ….'

‘… Is something we don't have much of,' said Mel. ‘We've been in here a while now. Before too long we're going to start to feel sick, remember. We'll need to find a way out soon. And we still haven't found any trace of the master. Come on.'

After they had walked down the path for a while, they came to the mouth of a tunnel, lit by more lamp posts, that seemed to lead into the heart of the pyramid.

‘Do you suppose they … we went down here?' asked Wren.

‘Must have done. But there's only one way we're going to find out for sure,' said Mel.

‘I'll catch you up,' said Ludo. ‘I just want to see ourselves when we come into view. I'll give us a wave so we can find this place.'

They entered the tunnel and presently Ludo ran up to join them.

‘Did you signal us?' asked Wren.

‘What? Oh, yeah. All done.'

‘That's funny, I didn't see you waving at us,' said Mel. He stopped and looked back down the tunnel. ‘What's that?' He took the telescope from his satchel. Behind them, running in and out of the pools of light cast by the lamp posts, was a band of scarlet-clad men-at-arms, each with a drawn sword in his right hand. ‘It's Mystery men! Let's get out of here.'

The friends took to their heels and sprinted down the long tunnel.

Suddenly it ended. The heart of the pyramid was one humungous, hollow space. It was lit by hundreds of
spherical lamps that hung from the inward sloping ceiling high above. The walls looked, and certainly smelt, like earth, and the huge, hairy roots of the maze protruded through into the interior, creating a sinuous jumble of twisted tendrils on an immense scale. Many more formed springs, wheels and ratchets that interlocked and moved with one another like a great machine. At the very heart of the pyramid swung an immense pendulum. It was so huge it moved slowly and took a long time to complete each swing. As it reached the limit of its arc, they heard the deep boom that had so puzzled Wren.

Mel's eyes soon adjusted to the gloom. Above and below him he took in many more doorways similar to theirs that opened on to the interior. They were all joined together by a confusing tangle of slender walkways like rope bridges, formed from the same root material. They overlay, underlay and joined on to others like another vast labyrinth. Yet more, like rope ladders, joined them vertically. On this impossibly complicated cat's cradle they could make out dozens more of the men from the Fifth Mystery running to and fro. Each carried a sword in his right hand.

‘They're all coming towards us,' said Mel.

There was an anguished shout.

‘Where's Ludo?' said Wren.

Their tunnel was joined to its own swaying walkway. Mel and Wren ran out on to the flimsy structure and looked over. Below them, screaming and falling into the fathomless void, was Ludo.

Mirrortime

‘
Ludo!
' Wren's cry echoed inside the cavernous space.

‘No,' said Mel, almost under his breath. Then he shouted, ‘
No!
Maybe he ….' Mel looked over the edge but any hope he might have had about Ludo landing on a walkway evaporated. There was no sign of him anywhere. ‘It's all my fault. I persuaded Ludo to come with us.'

But before the loss had a chance to properly register, his attention was torn back to their immediate peril. Surging towards them from every direction along the walkways and in the tunnel behind them were the sword-wielding men-at-arms of the Fifth Mystery. Scores of them. Their scarlet robes billowed out behind them as they raced in the friends' direction.

‘Wren. Grab hold!'

Wren's attention snapped back as the walkway lurched to one side. ‘Mel! What're you doing?'

Mel was frantically cutting through the roots that attached their walkway to the inside of the pyramid.
‘It's the only way. Grab a root. Just one more. Hang on!' He severed the final root and grabbed on to a free-hanging fibre. The pair swung down in a vertiginous arc into the heart of the pyramid, clinging to the stout tendrils. Above them, red-robed bodies, unable to stop in time, spewed out from the mouth of the tunnel into thin air. One after the other, they tumbled through the void, disappearing far below.

Mel and Wren crash-landed on to another walkway fifty feet below their starting point. It shuddered violently and groaned at their impact.

Winded, Mel picked himself up. ‘We're not safe here,' he shouted, as more Mystery men surged towards them. He sawed through the roots of their new perch. They swung down again and landed heavily on yet another walkway even farther down. The Mystery men skidded to a halt above them, but two of them lost their balance and plunged headfirst into the void.

‘There's something very odd about them,' said Mel. He fished his telescope out and scanned their pursuers. He handed it to Wren. ‘Take a look. Tell me what you see.'

‘
Mel!
There's no time for this.' But she took it anyway. ‘Lots of armed men chasing us. What did you expect?'

‘Look harder. Use the knob to make things bigger.'

‘They're … they're all the same. They're identical!'

‘Yes! You remember how we kept seeing ourselves, as if there were lots of us? Well, I'm pretty sure it's only one man. Perhaps the invaders were here and he got left behind. The weird time in here has somehow multiplied him.'

‘Maybe. But even if there is only one, he's really big. And he's carrying a skegging great sword.'

Just then their walkway started swaying as more Mystery men reached it and ran towards them.

‘It certainly feels like there's more than one.'

‘Here we go again.' Mel hacked through the roots of the flimsy walkway. This time their pursuers – or pursuer – were nearly upon them before the roots parted and they swung away and crashed on to the temporary safety of another, deeper walkway.

The new Mystery men fell screaming from the
slack gantry as it collapsed. Far above them, yet more men were scampering about, trying to find a new route to them through the rearranged tangle of walkways.

‘This is hopeless, Mel. We could spend the rest of our lives swinging from one walkway to another,' said Wren in despair.

‘If we don't, there won't be a rest of our lives. You know about time. What do we do?'

Wren collected herself. ‘I don't know. This isn't like normal time. It's
mirror
time.' She looked around at the strange root-mechanism. Then it came to her. ‘Mel, it's a
clock
! We're inside a clock. It's pretty strange but it's got a pendulum, gears, springs, escapement. Everything. If only there was a – '

‘Wren,
look
! Down there.' Mel fixed his telescope on a spot deep below. He handed it to Wren with a broad smile.

‘How can you smile at a time like this?'

‘Just look, will you?'

Wren took the proffered telescope and followed Mel's pointing finger. A broad smile also spread across
her face. She laughed out loud. ‘It's us. It's you and me … and
Ludo
!'

‘Think, Wren,
think
! How do we join up now, to the future, down there? What's the missing piece?'

‘OK, we're in a clock, right? What we need is a regulator.'

‘What's it look like?'

‘It'll be a dial of some kind, probably with a knob or lever.'

Wren scanned the inside of the pyramid with the telescope but could see nothing. She tried again. She almost missed it, but then jerked the telescope back. ‘There's something over there. Let's go. But this time, please, no swinging.'

The pair clambered along, through and down the swaying cat's cradle of gantries until they reached the spot Wren had identified.

‘It could be a regulator but it's unlike any I've ever seen.' It was about the size of a dinner plate and covered with clinging earth. She brushed some away to reveal a broad circle of root with others arranged eccentrically inside. ‘Lend me your bodkin for a moment.'
With the blade she scraped away damp earth from the face and then used the point to dig out more, revealing a scale incised into the surface. There was a plus sign at one end and a minus at the other, with graduated markings in between. About halfway between the two was a kind of lever formed from a filament of hairy root. She grabbed it but it was stuck fast. ‘Mel, I need your help. We have to move this.'

Mel also grabbed the lever. ‘Which way?'

‘Towards the minus sign, this way.' They heaved it together but it was stuck fast. Then the long walkway beneath their feet started swaying as twenty or more Mystery men reached it and began running towards them.

‘It won't budge, Mel. If it was a real clock I'd give it a shot of oil.'

Mel knelt down, opened their sack of provisions and took out a flask of water. ‘Here, use this.' He shot a worried glance at the scarlet men who were approaching rapidly.

Wren poured the water on to the regulator, turning the earth to thin mud that drizzled off. They both tried
again, working it to and fro. Ever so slowly, the lever began to move. Time slowed down.

As if in slow-motion, the first of their pursuers reached Mel. He raised his sword high over his head and struck down.

With a jolt, the lever came completely free and went all the way to the minus end of the scale. The razor-sharp blade halted a bare hand's breadth from Mel's skull. It then rose away. Slowly at first, but gathering pace, the man began to move backwards. He reached his doubles and they too began to reverse their course down the walkway as the mirrortime unwound.

‘That was close,' said Mel, rubbing his head.

‘Come on,' said Wren, ‘I don't know how long this'll last.' With a mighty wrench, she pulled the regulator off its support and stashed it in Mel's satchel. They grabbed their belongings and ran after the retreating men.

Then their whole pursuit went into rapid reverse. When they reached the dangling ends of the severed walkways that they had descended on, they grabbed them and were whipped up into the air. It happened so
fast that they nearly lost their grip. This was repeated several times as they retraced their descent, until they found themselves speeding upwards towards the mouth of the tunnel where they had entered the interior. Just before the walkway reattached itself to the inner wall of the pyramid, eleven men-at-arms shot from the darkness below and into the mouth of the tunnel. Mel looked down the passage and saw them running backwards and then he and Wren following them – or preceding them; it was all very confusing.

He looked over the edge of the walkway and saw Ludo rising towards them at great speed. As he neared the walkway, he slowed down. Mel reached out, grabbed his friend and hugged him tight. The three of them watched for a moment as they saw themselves disappearing backwards into the tunnel.

‘Ludo! It's so great to have you back.'

‘Have me back? I haven't been anywhere – and let go of me.'

‘Come on!' shouted Wren.

They hurried out on to the restored walkway. After they had gone a short way, it began to sway.

‘We'd better hurry. You can't treat a clock like that and expect it to work normally,' said Wren.

‘What are you talking about?' asked Ludo, puzzled.

‘We'll tell you later,' said Mel and Wren together.

They rushed on, descending through the walkways as the entire interior of the pyramid began to vibrate. The noise of the pendulum – more of a ‘moob' than a boom now – became increasingly frequent.

‘Just a moment, Ludo,' said Mel as they arrived at the spot where they had seen themselves earlier. It stood at the entrance to another tunnel that seemed to lead out of the pyramid. ‘Come here and stand by us. Look up there and wave.' He pointed back up into the heart of the swaying tangle of walkways.

‘You've both gone mad,' said Ludo.

‘Just humour us,' said Wren. ‘It's for your own good.'

The three friends waved energetically, repeating the scene Mel and Wren had witnessed earlier.

‘You're cracked,' said Ludo. ‘Both of you.'

‘You fell into the pyramid,' said Mel.

‘We thought you were dead but then we saw us all
standing here. We reversed time and got you back,' added Wren.

‘Dead?
Me?
'

‘We'll all be dead if we don't get out of here before the entire place shakes itself to pieces,' said Mel. ‘Let's go.'

They were bouncing off the walls by the time they reached the outside. They emerged through a doorway at ground level and ran out on to the grassy plain beyond for some way before they stopped in front of an enormous topiary head and looked back. The pyramid went through an instant autumn as the leaves of the towering maze all fell at once, revealing a bleak terraced structure through the suddenly bare branches. This tottered and, for a moment, seemed as if it was about to implode. The terraces leant against each other at drunken angles and came to rest. Then, like a shockwave spreading out from an explosion, all the topiary figures on the plain also shed their leaves, leaving huge, skeletal branches behind.

The friends looked round, and beneath the bare vestiges of one of the giant heads that now resembled a
skull was the entrance to a wide underground passage. Leading out from the tunnel entrance and disappearing towards the horizon was a trail of giant footprints.

‘Well, that answers one question,' said Ludo. ‘The house didn't go around, it didn't go over and it didn't go through. It went
under
.' They all peered down into the hole.

‘Do you suppose the house knew about the tunnel?' asked Wren.

‘Maybe the Fifth Mystery chased him here,' said Ludo.

‘From what I know of the house it would have been the one doing the chasing,' said Mel. ‘Are you two all right? You don't look well.'

‘To tell the truth, I don't feel too good,' admitted Ludo.

‘Me neither, Ludo,' said Mel. ‘It's the Mirrorscape sickness Green warned me about. We need to get out for a break. Can either of you see a wall of mist anywhere?'

‘You mean like that, over there?' asked Wren.

‘That's just what I mean. Come on, you two.'

‘I'll catch you up. I've got a pebble in my boot,' said Ludo.

The wall of mist shimmered and parted. On to the black and ruined shores of Ambrosius Blenk's lake stepped Groot, Bunt and Jurgis. They were wearing scarlet robes and each had the freshly shaved tonsure and pallid faces of the Fifth Mystery. Groot looked about with satisfaction at the work of his new colleagues. He folded Mel's sketch of the mirrormark and handed it to Jurgis, who tucked it inside his robes. They searched around until they found the yellow arrow.

Groot laughed. ‘No strength of character, that boy. None at all.'

The friends soon found themselves back in Nem and feeling better. It only took a short while before the symptoms of the Mirrorscape sickness disappeared. They were in a small, octagonal room hung with paintings. Wren opened the sack and shared out some of their provisions.

As they ate, Ludo was incredulous at their story of
how they reversed the mirrortime. ‘If I'd fallen down into the pyramid I'd know all about it. Look.' He rolled up his sleeves. ‘Not a scratch.'

‘But you
did
,' insisted Mel. ‘And then Wren worked out how to rewind time – and you didn't.'

‘You're just trying to confuse me. Either I did or I didn't.'

‘What's this then?' Wren showed Ludo the shaggy regulator.

‘How should I know? What is it anyway?'

‘We used it to rewind time. It's something my father would be interested in. I'm going to show it to him. One day.' She put it away. ‘Where do you think we are?'

‘We must be in the House of Mysteries,' said Mel, pointing at the view through the windows.