Page 43 of Tattered Huntress
Eleanor dipped her hand inside. She let out a tiny squeal when she pulled out the final counter out and looked at it. ‘Numberone!’
‘Unbelievable,’ one of the twins muttered. ‘They arrive last and they get to enter the cave first.’
At least that meant that Hugo wasn’t first. When I looked at him again, he held up two fingers. The Primes would be second, then. I rolled my eyes.
‘I will give you five minutes to prepare,’ Gordon said. ‘Then I will unlock the rune and open the passageway.’ He paused. ‘If anybody changes their mind and does not wish to go through, you can still back out.’
I was already pulling my T-shirt over my head to reveal my bathing suit underneath. Back out? No chance.
‘I don’t understand,’Hester said plaintively as I beckoned her and Otis towards my waterproof bag, where I’d also stuffed my clothes, some food and a bottle of clean water. ‘Why can’t you use magic and create an air bubble to travel through the passageway? Then nobody will get wet and nobody will drown.’
I might not have enjoyed a formal magic education but I’d picked up enough to know exactly why I couldn’t do that. ‘Cane toads,’ I said.
‘Huh?’
‘In the 1930s, Australia imported about a hundred cane toads to deal with an infestation of cane beetles. The theory was that the toads would adapt to the countryside and keep the beetle population down so the farmers wouldn’t need to use pesticides. Not only did the toads not eat the beetles, they multiplied by their millions, began to spread disease and depleted dozens of other native species.’
Hester cocked her head in confusion. ‘I still don’t get it.’
‘You don’t introduce something to a new environment unless you know exactly what effect it will have,’ I told her.
‘I’m not suggesting you turn us into frogs, Daisy,’ she protested. ‘I’m only saying that a bit of magic would help.’
I tried a different example. ‘Twenty years ago, some enterprising miners in Wales hired a few elves to shift the earth around and make it easier for them to get at a large coal seam. Using earth magic underground unsettled the earth and triggered an earthquake. The mine collapsed, killing everyone inside it, and there were millions of pounds of damage above ground as well.’
I pointed at the pool of black water. ‘We don’t know what’s in there or what’s on the other side of it. We don’t know what using a burst of air magic might do to the atmosphere, which has probably remained undisturbed for at least two hundred years. Until we know what we’re dealing with, magic isn’t a good idea.’
Otis nodded wisely. ‘Prudence is always wise.’
Hester huffed. ‘Prudence might get us drowned.’
‘It’s unlikely.’ All three of us turned to Gordon, who had been listening in to our conversation. He blushed at the attention but he continued. ‘We’ve sent out feelers. The water doesn’t extend beyond this spot for more than sixteen metres. We don’t know what’s on the other side of this cave but we know it won’t just be water.’
‘That’s easy for you to say,’ Hester muttered. ‘You’re not jumping into that nasty water for a swim.’
‘You don’t have to come,’ I told her. ‘You can stay here.’
She folded her tiny arms indignantly. ‘I am not letting you go off and do all the adventuring on your own! What kind of brownie do you think I am?’
Gordon looked amused. ‘A very brave one,’ he said.
‘That’s right!’ Hester yelled. ‘That’s goddamn right!’ She zipped inside the bag with Otis right behind her. I sealed it andmanoeuvred it onto my shoulders, making sure it was securely tied and wouldn’t slip off.
Humphrey and Eleanor stepped forward. Despite her earlier pleasure at drawing the first slot, Eleanor was white-faced as she gazed at the murky water. Humphrey didn’t look much happier. There were disadvantages to going first.
‘Are you sure about this?’ Eleanor whispered, reaching for Humphrey’s hand.
‘No,’he said. ‘Are you?’
‘Not at all.’
I cleared my throat. ‘You’ve got this. You can do it.’
Eleanor swallowed. ‘Thanks, Daisy.’
‘If you want to swap numbers,’ one of the shapeshifters began, ‘we’d be more than happy to take your place.’
‘Thanks, old chap,’ Humphrey said. ‘I appreciate the thought but we will not shirk our task.’
