The Girl of Ink & Stars (13 page)

The seconds dragged by. Eventually, the Tibicena turned and began racing up the slope in the direction we'd just taken. Lupe exhaled in relief, but then the tunnel began to shake. I pulled Lupe into a crevice no wider than Miss La's coop.

We wedged ourselves in, satchel squashed between us, as the Tibicenas came swarming from all directions, panting and returning each other's calls, sniffing the ground. The black shapes blurred past, like a swarm of bats, rousing clouds of stinging dirt, and the bitter smell in the air intensified.

I felt my throat closing, lungs sucking in like sponges. Lupe was stifling coughs into the crook of her arm. A couple of Tibicenas seemed to pause near our hiding place, but were soon swept along by the tide of the pack. Just as
I couldn't stand the pain in my stomach any longer, the shaking stopped. Soon, only echoes and hanging dust remained.

Lupe squeezed out of the crevice again. I followed, relief humming through me, and pulled the wood-light back out of the satchel.

‘How long until they reach the waterfall?' Lupe asked shakily.

The Tibicenas moved much faster than us, but it was a steep incline for most of the journey and we must have walked for a couple of hours already. If the Tibicenas did not realize that they were following the scent in the wrong direction…

‘We might just make it.'

‘Which way?'

I held up my hand to look at the map, but it was not there. I opened my fist and a fragment fluttered out, coming to rest on the claw-marked ground.

‘No.' I dropped to my hands and knees, scrabbling in the dust near the crevice. The corner must have ripped as we scrambled in.

‘Over here.' Lupe's voice was oddly flat.

I raised the wood-light in the direction of her outstretched finger, uncertain what she was pointing at. Then I saw a corner of the map in the dirt. Then another scrap, and another.

It was torn to pieces, pressed like petals into the dust by the stampeding Tibicenas.

‘Can you fix it?' Lupe asked, though surely she knew the answer.

I looked into the darkness. It stretched around us, featureless and terrifying.

We were lost.

CHAPTER
NINETEEN

I
did not know what to do. We could not stay here now that the Tibicenas had our scent, but we did not know the way, nor what lay ahead.

To my surprise Lupe did not shout or blame me. She knelt and began gathering up the fragments.

‘Leave them,' I said quietly. ‘There's no point.'

Tears threatened. That was Ma's map, all I had left of her.

Lupe ignored me and collected as many bits of the map as she could. She piled them carefully and held them out. I rubbed my eyes fiercely.

‘It's all right to be scared, Isabella,' she said. ‘I'm scared, too.'

I looked up, blinking hard. Her expression was soft, and I remembered that face from years before, from the day we first became friends. Lupe holding out her hand as I sat crying by the abandoned rabbit warren, missing Gabo.

I took the fragments.

The satchel's strap had also snapped, so I emptied it, putting the keys and fragments in the pouch on my belt. I kept the blade in my hand, the worn leather of the handle comforting.

‘What now?' Lupe asked, suddenly brisk.

I squeezed my eyes shut and again tried to call the map to memory. I knew we were close to where the map had indicated an exit. When I had looked, just before the first Tibicena arrived, where had we been?

The answer bubbled up behind my closed lids. Southeast. Beneath the Arintara. That was it! The tunnel had curved and turned, but had roughly followed the line of the river. What next? The three possible routes onwards.

‘Isabella?'

Lupe's voice sent the vision of the map spiralling away. But it didn't matter. I knew.

‘We need to take the right passage.'

‘Yes, but how are we meant to know which one that is?'

‘No, the right-hand passage.' I pointed. ‘That one.'

She looked at me doubtfully. ‘That's where they came from.'

‘They came from everywhere,' I said impatiently. ‘That's the way out. We need to follow it to a sort of twisty bit—'

‘Twisty bit?'

‘Yes, like a knotted rope, but if we stay on the left side of the knot and take the first path off it, we'll get there.'

I was almost sure. Almost.

We continued in silence. The path led downwards. The only good thing about the destruction of the map was now we could use the water for drinking. We passed a wide turn-off scored with paw prints, and I felt Lupe relax slightly as I led us past, into a narrower tunnel that was unmarked.

The heat was growing, and soon I had a throbbing ache drilling deep behind my temple. The sharp smell became stronger, until the air was barely breathable. My head was light and the world around me felt soft and too close. I blinked, trying to push everything back into focus. Lupe seemed dizzy too, stumbling occasionally and dragging her feet.

Worst of all was the sameness of the surroundings. Without a sky, time meant nothing. I measured the distance by the ache in my legs. I longed for the clear skies above Gromera, bright with sun or with stars, even the haze of the Forgotten Territories and the fearful wind of the Carment village.

My knee jarred painfully. The tunnel, suddenly horizontal, curved sharply ahead, and its height dropped by almost a metre. Head bowed, we walked on, the ceiling continuing to slope until we were bent almost double. The Tibicenas would surely have trouble fitting through this space if they tracked us here, but what if I was taking us the wrong way? We would be trapped.

My throat tightened, but we had to keep moving.

The tunnel continued closing in until we were crawling on our bellies, clothes catching on the rough edges of rock.
It would be impossible to turn back in such a small space. I followed closely behind Lupe's feet and tried not to think about the massive weight hanging above us, the whole of Joya poised over our heads.

The tunnel curved again. I guessed we were in what I had called a twisty bit, the tunnel looping back on itself. This passage should intersect with others soon, and then we would take the first left, hopefully to an exit. I drew in a long, steadying breath, the air sharp in my chest.

‘Lupe, I think we're going the right way.'

‘I hope so,' came her muffled reply as she spoke over her shoulder, ‘I don't think I can stand this much longer.'

‘Well, no. We can't stand at all.'

‘At least you're small!' Lupe's laugh was cut short. Her head and upper body rapidly disappeared, legs slithering after. I reached out, dropping the wood-light in my panic, but was left grasping air.

‘Lupe!'

A muted thump from the darkness ahead.

‘Lupe?'

Her reply made me jump, sending rock dust streaming.

‘I'm all right! It's only a short slope. Isa, you've got to see this…'

‘What is it?'

‘Just lower yourself down. It's safe.'

I inched ahead, feeling for the edge. I dropped the blade and heard it clatter down, then hung for a moment, letting my weight tip me forward.

It was not an elegant landing, and I only just missed the blade. I waited for Lupe to laugh, but she was oddly silent, standing at the centre of a cave, face tilted up. I did not need the wood-light to see her, because its glow bounced back at me from all directions.

A million crystals arced over our heads, throwing out light that danced and shifted, like underground stars. Even the rock beneath my knees glinted below the glittering ceiling.

Da had told Gabo and me about places like this.
I've never seen one, but once I met a man who had found a crystal cave under a river. Some crystals are formed by water, others by fire
.

And as there was no water here, no river… it had to be fire.

There are two kinds of crystals. One is granite, a light-coloured rock. And, like you two, it has a twin, a dark version of itself. Its name is ‘gabbro'. Gabo, Gabbro
.

Now as I stood, surrounded by the walls of glittering crystals, that coincidence came back to me, like a gift.

Something clicked slowly into place, like a sum. It all added up. The smell, the crystals, the heat. I could not ignore it any longer.

‘Lupe? I think I know what this is.'

Lupe didn't answer. Her eyes were fixed on the crystals.

I took another deep breath and said, ‘It's a fire pit. That's what formed these.'

Fire pits happen where the ground is so hot it melts
.
Imagine that, whole lands filled with flame! Sometimes it rises and swallows entire towns.
Gabo hadn't liked that, but Da had calmed him.
But more often they sleep and rumble a bit. Or make crystals named like twins
.

I opened my mouth to tell Lupe, but she was looking at me oddly.

‘Did you say a fire pit?'

Just like in the myth of Arinta. I recalled Ma's map, how the lines had seemed jumbled but still led to the centre. That strange red circle, at the centre of a map a thousand years old. I took a deep breath of acidic air.

A demon's promise lasts a thousand years.

‘What are you thinking?' Lupe's face was wary.

I was thinking of the drought. I was thinking of the Governor's animals, fleeing to the sea. I was thinking of the people in Gris, poisoned by the air.

‘The knot on the map was close to the red circle,' I said carefully. ‘Maybe only a mile. I think the exit is that way.' I pointed to a tunnel on our left. ‘But that way leads to the red circle.' I pointed to another, lower tunnel ahead. It shimmered in a different way from the crystals. It shimmered with heat.

‘So?'

I nearly changed my mind. But now was not the time to doubt. ‘Yote is in that red circle.'

‘Yote?' She wrinkled her nose. ‘From that story you like?'

I bristled. ‘He's a fire demon. And it's not a story. It's a myth.'

‘What's the difference?'

Irritated, I rubbed my eyes, grit grinding against my lids. ‘A myth is something that happened so long ago people like to pretend it's not real, even when it is.'

Lupe did not say anything for a long time. When she spoke, it was in a careful, calming voice, as if to a dangerous animal. ‘Isabella, Yote is no more real than Arinta.'

‘Arinta was real!' My voice echoed around the cave. ‘And anyway, what about the Tibicenas? They seemed real when they were chasing us!'

‘Maybe the horse boy was right,' she said in a determined voice. ‘Maybe they were wolves—'

‘Wolves as big as horses, whose fur stinks of smoke?'

‘Because they live underground, near a fire pit!'

‘They're driven by more than hunger. They didn't eat Cata. They killed her, left her to be found.'

A warning, Doce called it.
They've been sent to clear the island
.

‘Don't be stupid, Isabella. You've got to stop believing these things.'

‘But Arinta—'

‘Is a story! And you're not her!'

Her words hurt but I wasn't about to let her see that. ‘I don't think I'm—'

‘If you're telling me that is the way out, I'm going. And you're coming with me.'

‘You can't tell me what to do!'

‘I'm older than you.'

‘I don't care.' I snatched the wood-light from her. ‘I'm going without you.' Not looking at Lupe I strode towards the passage shimmering with heat.

A sudden pulse shook the ground beneath me. I stumbled and almost fell. Lupe had been brought to her knees.

Another, more violent shudder ran through my body. A single crystal fell from the cave ceiling high above, and shattered between us.

We locked eyes for a moment.

Then the world caved in.

CHAPTER
TWENTY

T
he noise was tremendous, like ten thunderstorms and fifty fireworks and a hundred Tibicenas jumbled together.

I ran to the side of the cave, pressing my palms to my ears, but the sound tore through me, forcing me to the ground as if under a giant thumb. I curled up, teeth chattering, head thumping. The ground roiled like the sea, and I waited for the rock to crush us, or to open up beneath me…

It did not. With a final smatter of pebbles, the tremors stopped. I opened my eyes, squinting through rock dust. Smashed boulders and crystals lay piled the full length of the cave, dividing it in two.

Lupe was nowhere to be seen. I shouted her name but only an echo came back. I stood up and searched for a way past or over the rock wall, but the boulders were packed solid and my arms shook as I tried to climb them. There was
no way out, except the tunnel behind me – the one that led to Yote.

I cowered against the hot wall of the cave. Tiredness covered me like a cloud. I wrapped my arms around my knees, and sobbed.

The cries came echoing back, sounding distant and detached. Eventually I stopped, so I didn't have to listen to myself. But the distant sobbing did not stop. As I listened I thought I could make out a word…

Is … ella. Isa …

It was my name. And that voice – it was Lupe!

I ran my hand over the wall, and found a crack splitting its curved side. I followed it as far as I could reach. Then I pressed my mouth to it and said, ‘Lupe?'

I placed my ear back over the crack. Nothing. Even the crying had stopped. Perhaps I had imagined it?

Then a voice, faint and tentative, spoke my name.

Heart singing, I spoke into the same place, ‘Find the crack. Speak into it.'

I waited impatiently, ear against the rock, and then Lupe's voice came, as clearly as if she were standing beside me.

‘Isabella? Are you there? What's happening?'

Like the crystals, it felt as if Gabo was in this somehow. Chest tight, I replied, ‘I'm here. I think it's a voice line.'

‘A voice line?'

‘Gabo and I had one, in our room. They carry your voice. Something to do with the curve of the cave.'

‘What happened?'

‘I'm not sure,' I lied, eyes fixed on the tunnel, certain I knew.

‘What now? I've tried climbing over the rockfall.'

‘Me too. What about the tunnel to the exit?'

‘Blocked.'

Clearing my throat, I tried to make my voice strong and calm. ‘The way we came into the cave, is it clear?'

The sound of her breathing vanished, and I pictured her moving across the cave to check. A few moments later, her voice trickled into my ear again. ‘It's completely blocked. There's a gap near the top, on the side. I think I could move some…' She sounded exhausted.

I steeled myself, but Lupe spoke before I could.

‘I will try. Then get you across. We'll find a different way, take one of the other paths—'

‘Lupe—'

‘And then we can get out of here, go home. I'll start now.'

‘Lupe, it won't work. I – I think you should go.'

She talked over me, faster and louder, her voice thick.

‘I think I can do it.'

‘It's all right, Lupe.'

‘No, I will, I just need to rest my arms …' Her voice trailed off.

‘Yes, you should rest. And then you should go back.'

‘I'm not going anywhere!' Anger flared in Lupe's tone. ‘And you need to promise me the same.'

The low tunnel was emanating heat. I had already
decided what I was going to do. I had decided the moment I saw it. So I lied, yet again. ‘I won't go anywhere.'

‘Good,' she said. Then, in a more authoritative voice, as if I hadn't already suggested it, ‘I think we should rest now. Are you going to sleep?'

‘Yes.'

‘Isa?'

‘Yes?'

‘Are you going to stay there, near the voice line I mean?'

‘Yes.'

Her fear made things easier and harder at the same time. I lay down, head twisted awkwardly to stay near the voice line, and waited for Lupe to fall asleep.

My stomach rumbled loudly. I ran a hand over it, feeling the hard lines of my ribs, remembering days when I'd frown at our simple meals of bread and whatever fish Da had managed to buy at the market, asking why we didn't eat like people did in his stories of bygone feasts. A meal like that would be a feast to me now.

One of my favourite tales was about the six villages of Joya coming together in Gromera to celebrate the island's six-hundredth year of peace.
This was in the old days,
Da said in his storytelling voice,
even before Arinta. People brought wild boar and roots cooked with ground chillies and vinegar, dates in spun-sugar baskets, palm-sized oysters in pearly shells, crabs and lobsters boiled and served heaped with lemon-scented butter, an octopus the length of a man, shoaled in samphire and salt
…

My stomach rumbled again. Lupe's light snores slid down the voice line, pulling me out of the feast and into the dark. I pushed myself to my feet. My head spun and pins and needles tingled up and down my fingers. Swallowing back the sick feeling, I walked five short paces to the low tunnel mouth. I squeezed my eyes shut and let the heat press on my lids.

I stepped forward.