Museum of Thieves (11 page)

Goldie stuck her tongue out at him and ran down the stairs after Olga Ciavolga.

Now that Harry Mount had decided to take them down instead of up, it seemed in a hurry to get rid of them. The walls on either side began to draw in. They went around one more turn and the staircase ended abruptly.

Goldie found herself on the threshold of a huge, dimly lit room. Brick arches loomed above her head, held up by great square pillars. Watergas lamps burned in small cages at the top of each arch. There was no floor. Instead, all Goldie could see were the wide dark waters of a lake that lapped at the pillars and at the bottom step of Harry Mount.

‘This,’ whispered Olga Ciavolga, ‘is Old Scratch. We will pass through here quickly. Do not speak unless you must.’

There was a narrow brick ledge running around the edge of the lake. Broo stepped down onto it and sniffed at the dark water. The playfulness had completely gone out of him. He wagged his tail briefly and began to lead the way along the ledge.

Toadspit went second, with Morg hunched on his shoulder. Then came Goldie and Olga Ciavolga. Water dripped from the ceiling and ran down the backs of their necks. The air was as cold as a winter’s night.

They had not gone far when Broo stiffened and pricked up his ears. Morg bobbed her head from side to side as if she was trying to see through the gloom. They all stopped and listened.

At first Goldie could hear nothing except the
drip drip drip
of the water, and a scratching sound from behind the nearest pillar. Then, far away across the cavern, something splashed. A second later, the water rose up like a black tongue and lapped at her feet.

‘Quickly!’ whispered Olga Ciavolga. ‘We must be gone from here!’

Broo didn’t move. He stood staring out over the water, the hair on his back bristling. Toadspit stepped over him and Goldie followed. It was hard to hurry. The ledge was covered in green slime, and she was sure that if she went too fast she would slip.

The splash came again, closer this time. The water rose around Goldie’s feet, cold and hungry.

‘Toadspit, find the door! Hurry!’ shouted Olga Ciavolga, no longer bothering to be quiet. Her voice echoed around the arches.
Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!

Goldie ran. Her feet skidded on the treacherous bricks. A wave wrapped itself around her ankles and tried to drag her off the ledge. She clutched blindly at Toadspit, and he grabbed her arm. There was a low door in the wall in front of them. Toadspit fumbled it open. They both fell through it with Olga Ciavolga close behind them.

‘Broo!’ gasped Goldie. ‘Where’s Broo?’

She glanced over her shoulder in time to see the little dog racing along the ledge towards her – only somehow, in the fitful light, he looked bigger.
Much
bigger.

Goldie opened her mouth to cry out . . .

There was a flurry of movement and shouting. The door slammed shut. Goldie blinked, and looked down. And there was Broo, dancing around her feet, wagging his tail and smiling. Just a little white dog happy to see them all safe and sound.

The shadows had fooled her once again.

.

omething nasty in Old Scratch, eh?’ said Sinew when they met up with him at the end of the morning. He ran his awkward-looking fingers over the strings of his harp. ‘Dan was right, then. Ancient dangers
are
stirring. We’d best be wary.’

In the four hours or so since they had left the underground lake, Olga Ciavolga and Toadspit had led Goldie through room after room. She had seen stuffed dolphins and old dolls houses and little dark prison cells with the stink of despair embedded in their walls. She had walked past deep pits, and rusty metal wheels that loomed as high as a three-storey building. She had gazed up at the hulk of a sailing ship that lay tipped on its side as if it had been stranded inside the museum when the tide went out.

Each room had a name. Dauntless, Lost Children, The Tench. Old Mine Shafts, Rough Tom. And that was just the beginning. The museum was even bigger than Goldie had thought. There seemed to be no end to it.

Right now they were standing on top of a hill called the Devil’s Kitchen. It was covered with giant rocks, and the air hummed with the sound of insects. For the first time since Goldie had entered the museum there was no sign of any ceiling, and she could hardly believe that they were still inside that small stone building. The sky seemed to stretch in every direction.

‘And what of the other business?’ said Sinew. ‘What of Harry Mount?’

Olga Ciavolga nodded. ‘She felt it.’

A huge smile transformed Sinew’s serious face. He grabbed Goldie’s hand and shook it vigorously. ‘Good! Excellent!’ he said.
He turned back to Olga Ciavolga. ‘Have you told her the rest of it?’

Goldie pricked up her ears. The things she had seen this morning had fascinated her, but they had not made her forget Ma and Pa and her desperate desire to help them. Ever since breakfast, her impatience had been growing.

Is this it
?
she thought.
Are they going to tell me what I can do
?

‘I am waiting for Dan,’ said Olga Ciavolga. ‘He is meeting us here.’ She looked around. ‘Where is Broo? He ran ahead.’

‘I think he went down the tunnels,’ said Sinew.

‘Tsk, he is too quick. Toadspit, you take Goldie and go after him. I will follow as soon as Dan comes.’

Goldie didn’t move. ‘What about Ma and Pa?’

Sinew hesitated. ‘There’s no good news, I’m afraid. They were sentenced yesterday. Four years in the dungeons of the House of Repentance.’

Goldie had been expecting it, but still her whole body went cold and weak, and she had to lean against one of the rocks or she might have fallen.

‘I thought I might be able to get a message to them,’ continued Sinew. ‘I’ve done it before. But my contacts are lying low. The bombing has scared everyone.’

Goldie hardly heard him. ‘I have to
do
something,’ she whispered. ‘Maybe I
should
go back.’

‘Do not be foolish, child,’ said Olga Ciavolga. ‘It benefits no one if you are also taken. You must be patient.’ She turned back to Sinew. ‘What have you discovered about the bombers?’

‘They seem to have disappeared completely. I couldn’t find a trace of them. But I’ll try again tomorrow—’

‘Well?’ said Toadspit in Goldie’s ear. ‘Are you coming?’

He pushed aside some bushes, revealing a narrow fissure in one of the rocks. He ducked his head and squeezed through it. Goldie heard the scrape of a tinderbox, and a thin beam of light shone out of the darkness. She ducked her own head and slipped through the gap.

She found herself in a small cave with a smooth rock floor. There was a tunnel leading off to the left, and Toadspit was walking down it, with a lantern swinging in his hand. Behind him the shadows were already closing in.

Goldie thought of Ma and Pa. It would be even darker than this, in the dungeons of the House of Repentance . . .

She bit her lip, and hurried to catch up with Toadspit.

The tunnel ran level for a little way, then it turned a corner and began to slope downwards. The air smelled dry and old. In the light of the lantern, the walls glittered like snakes’ eyes.

‘Where are we?’ whispered Goldie.

Toadspit didn’t reply straight away. But when he did, he answered a different question altogether. ‘It’s because you’re a thief,’ he said, over his shoulder. His voice was a little friendlier than usual, as if he too was affected by the darkness.

Just then, the floor of the tunnel dipped unexpectedly. Goldie stumbled and put her hand out to save herself. The rock wall sliced into her finger. ‘
Ow!
’ she yelped.

Toadspit stopped and held up the lantern. ‘What’s the matter?’

Goldie had only ever cut herself once before. That was when she was six, and Ma and Pa had rushed her off to the physician for stitches, and kept her in bed for a month afterwards. This cut was bigger and bloodier, and the sight of it horrified her. But Toadspit snorted when he saw it, and continued down the tunnel as if there had been no interruption.

‘Only a thief can find their way through the museum,’ he said over his shoulder. ‘No one’s quite sure why. And only one thief in a thousand would notice when Harry Mount turned itself around. That’s why we went there. It was a test.’

Goldie tried to concentrate on what the boy was saying. But her finger had begun to throb painfully. She did her best to think of something else. ‘Does that mean you’re a thief too?’

‘Yep.’

‘What did you steal?’

For a moment, she thought he wasn’t going to answer. Then he said, ‘Myself.’

That didn’t make
any
sense to Goldie at all. Her finger felt as if it was on fire. Ahead of her, the tunnel went down, down into the darkness. The rock walls, when she brushed against them, were as sharp as teeth.

And suddenly, out of the blue, she was angry. What was she
doing
here? She should be trying to help Ma and Pa, not wandering around in some stupid tunnel listening to stupid stories that she didn’t understand. It was all very well for Olga Ciavolga to tell her to be patient. She was
sick
of being patient!

She stopped. Toadspit lifted the lantern so that it shone in her eyes. ‘What’s wrong now?’

‘I want to go back. I want to get Ma and Pa out of the House of Repentance.’

‘Don’t be an idiot. You can’t get them out.’

Goldie stared at him. ‘You said I could! That’s why I stayed here instead of going to Spoke!’

‘I said you might be able to
help
. I didn’t say help them es
cape
. No one ever escapes from the House of Repentance, not till their sentence is over. You should know that. Now come on, stop wasting time!’

Goldie shook her head in angry frustration. ‘You don’t understand! None of you do! It’s not
your
parents who are locked up. If it was, you’d want to do something about it. You wouldn’t just hang around here being useless!’

Toadspit stiffened. ‘You don’t know
anything
!’ he snarled. Then he hunched his shoulders and began to walk down the tunnel so fast that Goldie had to run to catch up with him, or risk being left alone in total darkness.

The floor was steeper than ever now. The sides were drawing in. Here and there a black hole showed where another tunnel split off from the main one. In front of Goldie, Toadspit’s back was hard and unfriendly.

He’s sulking
, thought Goldie.
Because he knows I’m right. I should be doing something! He told me I could! Otherwise I’d never have stayed!

In thinking that, she made herself even angrier. Because if it wasn’t for Toadspit, she’d probably be in Spoke with Ma’s relatives by now, instead of bleeding to death in this stupid tunnel.

The glittering walls seemed to reflect her anger back at her. All she could think of was that Sinew and Olga Ciavolga and Herro Dan were keeping her here against her will. She was furious with them. And furious with Toadspit too, for making her believe she could rescue Ma and Pa when she couldn’t.

As if he had heard what she was thinking, Toadspit suddenly stopped. He wasn’t sulking now. He was smiling. ‘Your turn to lead,’ he said.

Goldie was so angry that she didn’t think twice about that odd smile. She snatched the lantern out of his hand. Ahead of her was a huge boulder. She marched around it.

On the other side was the brizzlehound.