Page 28 of Tattered Huntress
‘That was very risky,’ Otis scolded. ‘You could have caused an accident. Don’t do anything like that again.’
Jamila winked at him. ‘We don’t need to. They’ll be there for five minutes while the bins are collected. They won’t see us for dust.’ She changed gear. ‘Time to vamoose to Snake Pass.’
The restof the journey passed without incident. We soon returned to the main road and left Derby heading north. As soon as we hit a long hill and started climbing, I knew we were reaching the drop-off point.
‘This is as far as I can take you.’ Jamila pulled into a layby near the top of the slope. She pointed to her left where a steeper hill dominated the skyline. ‘You need to go the rest of the way on foot. The snake will probably be asleep in its cave. As long as you walk quietly past it, you’ll be fine.’ She looked up at the sky. ‘It’ll be dark in a few hours though,’ she warned. ‘There aren’t lights up here so you might struggle to see.’
‘I can camp out till dawn if I need to. It’ll be fine.’ It was summer, the nights were short and I wasn’t afraid of roughing it. I turned to face her. ‘I can’t thank you enough for all your help.’
‘Daisy, it’s been fab. I haven’t had this much fun for weeks. I’ve got the day off tomorrow so come by my house when you get back to Derby and I’ll get that motorbike sorted for you.’
The kindness of strangers. ‘Thank you,’ I said fervently.
‘I always like to root for the underdog. Find that treasure and show the rest of them how it’s done.’
‘I’ll give it everything I have,’ I promised. ‘If I win, you’ll get a share.’
‘That’s not why I helped you,’ she protested.
‘I know,’ I said quietly. I swallowed the lump in my throat. ‘Hopefully I’ll see you tomorrow.’ I gave her a quick hug and then, with Hester and Otis flapping beside me, I got out of the van. I waited until she was driving away so I could wave her off.
‘Nice lady,’ Otis commented.
And then some, I thought.
I swung my backpack onto my shoulders and turned around. It was possible that I’d have the first key part in my grubby paws by dawn. I grinned and set off along the narrow track with a spring in my step.
Although the light was starting to dip, there were still a couple of hours to go before nightfall. It was no longer raining and there was a freshness to the air. I found I was genuinely enjoying the walk.
I knew from what Jamila and the others had told me that it was a two-mile hike to the top of Snake’s Pass where the old Doctor’s Gate road began. I eyed the dark opening of the cave to my right where the snake resided. There was no sign of it; all I could hear was the evening chorus from a few birds flappingoverhead.
I wasn’t particularly worried but neither was I foolish enough to drop my guard. I wouldn’t do a damn thing to risk waking up the beast. It would only take thirty minutes or so to sneak up to the summit. Once I was there, I could relax.
I placed a finger to my lips to remind Otis and Hester to be quiet. The usually chatty brownies nodded solemnly, obviously as unwilling to become a monster snake’s teatime snack as I was. I slowed my steps, taking care where I placed my feet to be as quiet as possible. By the time I drew level with the mouth of the cave, I was on tiptoe and moving at snail’s pace.
Dark rock overhung the cave entrance, casting black shadows across the ground and making it impossible to see anything inside no matter how much I strained my eyes. The cave mouth was roughly two metres wide, although I reckoned the tunnel opened out once you were inside. Not that I’d be slipping past the entrance to check. Yes, there were occasions when curiosity got the better of me – but this was definitely not one of them.
The faint, rhythmic rumbling inside suggested that Jamila had been right and the snake was indeed fast asleep in its dark den rather than slithering around the hills searching for tasty treasure hunters to munch on. There were no signs of any carcasses or bones, so it probably dragged its prey inside and finished them off in there.
I shuddered slightly and held my breath until I was several metres past, then I moved more quickly to put as much distance as I could between the cave and myself. Soon my thigh muscles were aching and my breath was coming in short gasps, but my wariness had subsided. It was no longer the snake I had to worry about; now it was merely my own fitness and my ability to locate the key.
‘What’s wrong with you?’ Hester asked. ‘Why are you breathing like that? You sound like a horse.’
‘You do sound strange,’ Otis agreed. ‘Are you alright, Daisy?’
I didn’t deign to reply but reached into my pocket for a little pill of heavenly relief and tossed it into my mouth, enjoying the familiar bitter taste. Within about three seconds, I started to feel better. My breathing eased and my blood fizzed as renewed energy zipped through every artery and vein. I cracked my neck and sighed with deep satisfaction as I strode up the final few metres and paused to look around.
Behind me, the black cave mouth remained still and silent; ahead, Doctor’s Gate stretched out for several miles before curving away behind a distant hill. I lowered myself to a cross-legged position and carefully scanned the scene.
‘Keep your eyes peeled,’ I told the brownies. ‘There must be some sort of landmark that points to the key’s location. Search along either side of the old stone road – we could be looking for anything man-made or natural.’
‘There’s an old, ruined farmhouse at the foot of that hill,’ Otis said, pointing to his left. ‘Behind those trees.’
He had sharp eyes. I squinted but could barely make out a stone wall and what might have been a chimney stack. Hmm; it was a possibility because the house could have been there since the eighteenth century, but it felt too obvious. I couldn’t picture a Jacobite chieftain hiding such an important object inside a farmhouse.
‘Okay,’ I nodded. ‘Keep searching.’ I leaned forward, gazing hard through the failing light at a misshapen shadow. I tilted my head to the left and then to the right before realising it was nothing more than a bush. Given how much low-lying scrub there was, I doubted that was the landmark I was looking for.
‘A waterfall?’ Hester asked doubtfully. ‘There’s a small one over there.’ She was pointing at a narrow stream of water tumbling down one of the rock outcrops, maybe three or four miles away from the stone track. It had potential but surely itwas too far from Doctor’s Gate to be the spot we were searching for.
