The Moon Stealers and the Quest for the Silver Bough (Book 1)

18. The Escape Tunnel

Edgar led the children along the passageway, all the time listening to the sticky and wet sound that was coming from behind. Scarlet could feel the air inside the tunnel getting colder as it sloped down and away from the castle. Max wondered if Edgar knew where they were going and kept nervously looking over his shoulder to see if he could see what was following them, but every time he turned round he seemed to stumble. The paleness of his skin seemed to shine in the torchlight like the warm wax from a candle whilst the sound of his shaky and nervous breathing bounced loud and echoey in the enclosed tunnel.

Edgar flashed the torch rapidly from side to side, looking for alternative tunnels to dodge down, but all he could see was damp stone of endless tunnel. He didn’t know when or where it would end, if it actually did, but all he could do was to keep running away from the sound behind them and try to lead the children to safety.

Suddenly they found the tunnel was blocked as they all ran directly into another iron gate. The torch fell from Edgar’s hand and landed on the ground rolling forward beneath the gate and into the tunnel on the other side. As its beam of light spun round and round, it finally came to rest facing the ceiling above Edgar and the children. A light crumble of stone became dislodged from the wall the gate was bolted to and fell to their feet.

The noise continued to come behind them and very soon it would be on top of them.

‘What do we do now!’, shouted Scarlet panicking.

‘It’s like the other gate we got through,’ said Joe rapidly as he noticed the rusted metal hinges that had absorbed the moisture from the rock. ‘If we push it hard enough we should be able to get through.’ With that he sat on the ground and began kicking at the rusted hinges as hard as he could.

The little light that shone in their direction, gave Edgar just enough visibility to be able to examine the lock. He took his penknife from his pocket and slid it into the keyhole of the lock, wiggling it around a little trying to release the catch.

Nothing happened.

Behind them the bubbling sound seemed to be getting louder.

Max closed his eyes, not wanting to see what was coming towards them, whilst Joe continued to kick at the hinges, his head darting around as he kept glancing at Edgar’s progress as well.

One of the hinges suddenly buckled under Joe’s persistence, the brown and crumbly rust of the hinge twisting and snapping. Spurred on by Joe’s success, Scarlet now joined him as he concentrated all effort on the second hinge.

Edgar tried twisting the knife slightly inside the lock as if it was a key, but it stayed closed. Frantically he wriggled it some more until finally there was a click, but he quickly realised that the click had come from the blade of the knife which had snapped and was now wedged inside the lock. There was no way the lock was going to be opened now, even if he had the key. Edgar turned away from the lock and started to concentrate on the hinges fixed on the wall.

‘Joe! Edgar!’ shouted Max as he began to see the outline of a dark shape coming towards them from further down the tunnel.

With one huge effort Edgar slammed his shoulder into the gate forcing the remaining screws to fall to the floor and the gate to spring back against the wall on the other side of the tunnel.

They all desperately scrambled through just as the dark shape emerged into the beam of torchlight that reflected off the tunnel walls.

Edgar leapt for the gate and pushed it back into position then forced his broken pen knife through one of the empty screw holes and into the stone wall with the heel of his hand until it was wedged stuck.