The Tunnels Below by Nadine Wild-Palmer (have you read this book .txt) 📗

that happen all the time like that,” he said, pointing at Polaris, “wouldn’t happen any more and we’d all be scratching through the dirt in the dark. You get me? Everything comes at some cost.”

While Cecilia had been listening to what Luke had been saying, she’d begun to feel something warm in her pocket. She felt very flushed and hot all of a sudden.

“Cecilia, are you OK? You’re sweating.”

“I think it’s Polaris, it’s making me really hot.” However, the warmth she felt was coming from her jeans pocket and it was becoming too much to bear, so she pulled out the marble to transfer it to her coat.

“Whoa, what’s happening to it?” Luke said, almost shouting.

The marble caught some of the light from Polaris and its markings and patterns, mists and spots began to move.

Luke turned to look at Polaris.

“Cecilia! Can you see that? All the markings on Polaris, they’re moving too.” He looked back at the marble. “Hang on,” he said, holding up her hand. “They match!”

They both looked back at the marble and saw that it was beginning to glow.

“What’s going on, Luke?”

Luke shook his head.

“I don’t know but Polaris has never done that before.”

A passer-by, a snake-faced skinny man who looked like an adder hissed the word “Misssss-chief!” and pointed up the hill to where they were standing and started to make his way over to a Corvus Community perch above the entrance to the hollow. The marble began to glow brighter, a gentle light pulsing as the etchings began to move; the mists and sparkled flecks whirled round its interior and a force began to pull it towards Polaris. The marble was reacting to the light of Polaris, and Polaris was responding.

“Whoa!” Luke made to touch the marble but Cecilia quickly stuffed it back in her pocket, a cautious look spreading across her face.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. We’d better get going!” Luke said. “Looks like we’ve started to attract attention.” He flipped his hood up and turned and tossed the hood of Cecilia’s coat over her head too. The snake-face was looking around for a member of the Corvus Community now and it wasn’t safe to stick around.

“I wonder what it means,” said Cecilia. “It’s like they’re communicating with one another.”

“Cecilia, I’ll be honest. Jasper said he thought it sounded like your marble was ‘more than the sum of its parts’. I just thought it would make a good bargaining tool to exchange in order to get me out of the lamentations, or to use as a decoy if I found myself in a tight spot. You know, to throw it to the birds like I did with Marvin. But I’m not so sure that what you have is something the Corvus Community should ever get their beaks on!”

“Well, whatever it is, you can have it when Kuffi is free and back where he belongs. I promised,” said Cecilia.

The light from Polaris flickered and the light on the edge of the surrounding tunnels dimmed in response. Birdsong like the break of dawn broke out all around them, beautiful swirls of music, coming from the arched windows as the dwellers twittered to one another. The other dwellers had felt it too, as though something was happening, something was changing. Cecilia and Luke hurried past a smooching couple of lovebirds and a family of sparrow-faces who were packing up the remains of what looked like a rather measly picnic.

“I can’t imagine you in a dress! I bet you look dread… I mean, delightful!” Luke joked as they speed-walked away.

“Hey!” Cecilia let out an awkward laugh and poked him in the ribs.

Luke curtsied and started to run ahead, goading her, in between blowing kisses and sashaying down a pretend catwalk.

“Hurry up!” he said. He seemed to be enjoying himself.

“Anyway,” Cecilia called picking up the pace, “you can talk! You’ll look a right dork in a tux!” Luke sped off and Cecilia chased after him.

15Hitching a Ride

Luke and Cecilia ran down a tunnel where the ground was lit on either side with two blue strips of light embedded into the ground. The blue light filled the tunnel and bounced off the walls. The tunnel itself was high and almost a complete circle apart from the flat ground, and the air felt refreshingly cool compared to the warmth of Polaris. After quite some distance they slowed down until they stopped completely. Luke leant up against the wall of the tunnel a few paces ahead, trying to catch his breath, while Cecilia brushed herself off, trying to tidy the massive curly dreadlock that was beginning to form on top of her head. The truth was, although Cecilia might have come across as a bit of a tomboy (a phrase that, for the record, she hated), she loved dresses and dressing up. She and Hester could get lost for hours in their mum’s wardrobe, parading up and down the corridor, taking it in turns to pose for the paparazzi, but Luke didn’t need to know that, or that a little excitement bubbled up when she thought about getting dolled up and going to a fancy place. And boy-oh-boy, would she like a wash.

Luke waved her over to him, dancing in the blue light. “Welcome to the blue line. This will take us all the way to Mrs Hoots and El Porto Fino, where we can scrub up and hear some real blues!” But as he gestured grandly towards Cecilia in a silly voice, a shadow crept up behind him.

Cecilia gasped and pointed for Luke to turn around but he was too busy being silly. A hand reached out from around the corner and Luke turned abruptly as Cecilia caught him up.

The hand belonged to Aubrey and he stood gallantly before them with his rolled-up carpet propped next to him. Aubrey was still wearing his bib from the competition and pinned to it was his brand-new shiny first-place medal. Luke pointed but no sound left his lips.

“Well played,” said Cecilia with