Page 22 of Skullduggery
Rizwan picked up on the second ring. ‘Hi,’ I said quickly. ‘It’s Daisy. I’ve got a problem.’
To his credit he didn’t panic, but neither did he soundparticularly surprised. Perhaps sudden emergency situations were par for the course when you were part of Hugo’s Primes. ‘Tell me.’
‘Everyone’s disappeared.’
There was a beat of silence. ‘Pardon?’
I licked my lips and started from the beginning. ‘I located the golden skull buried beneath an old stone near Caistor. Everyone was behind me while I dug it up. Once I’d retrieved it, I turned around and nobody was there. Hugo, Miriam, Becky, Slim and the brownies have vanished. The stone is cursed – I’m certain I didn’t touch it but maybe it shifted slightly without me noticing when I pulled out the skull. Maybe somehow that invoked the curse.’
‘Shit,’ Rizwan muttered. ‘Okay.’
‘There’s more.’ I stared at the glowing blue splodge. ‘There’s some … goop nearby.’
‘Goop?’
‘Maybe thirty metres away from the stone, just off the path, I found some blue goop. It’s stuck to a tree and it’s – er – glowing slightly.’
‘Glowing blue goop?’ Rizwan delivered each word very slowly as if he didn’t believe me.
‘Yep.’
‘Okay, hang on. Let me get Mark.’
As I waited impatiently, I scanned the darkness. When I spotted another blue blob, I exhaled sharply, then crouched down, phone in hand, and checked the ground.
‘Daisy?’ Mark’s voice sounded tinny.
I straightened up. Words tumbled out of my mouth at top speed. ‘There’s more – there’s more goop. I think it’s some kind of trail. And I can see footprints heading in the same direction. The others must have followed it.’
‘Okay, okay. That’s good.’ He was trying to reassure me but Icould hear the tension in his voice. ‘Whatever you do, Daisy, don’t follow the trail until we know exactly what we’re dealing with.’
I was already moving. ‘Sure, yep. No following.’
Several dry twigs snapped under my feet. If somebody or something had taken hold of my team and done anything to hurt them, they’d live to regret the day they were born. I had no idea what creatures might live out here in rural Lincolnshire among the cows and cursed stones, but I would find them.
I stopped abruptly. ‘Ask Duchess. Ask if she knows what it might be.’
Mark sounded confused. ‘Duchess?’
‘She’s a troll. She’s used to rural areas. If anyone knows what the blue goop is or what’s happened to the others, she will.’
‘Okay, okay. But make sure Gladys is unsheathed and you’re prepared while I find her.’
‘I—’ My voice faltered. Double cumbubbling bollocks: I’d handed Gladys to Hugo because of my untrustworthy magic. But Mark was already worried; I didn’t need to make things worse by telling him. I swallowed. ‘Alright,’ I said.
Picking my way through the trees, I followed both the illuminated glow in front of me and the footsteps on the ground beside me. A large field with some unidentifiable crops lay to my left, and a mess of ancient bracken, old trees and deep mud was to my right.
A pleasant buzz from the spider’s silk was coursing through my system and my heart was thumping anxiously against my ribcage: my adrenaline levels were high. That was good, I told myself. They would keep me alert and ready for anything.
With that thought in mind, I slapped both my ears hard, as if the action could somehow knock away my tinnitus. It didn’t stop the whiney ringing, but the self-inflictedpain made me feel slightly better. I focused on moving as quickly and quietly as I could and tried not to think about what danger my friends might be in.
I’d passed the second splodge of blue goop and seen the third one by the time Duchess’s voice crackled down the phone. ‘Glowing blue goop?’ she cackled. ‘How many drugs have you taken today, Fated Flea?’
I held my temper. Just. ‘Duchess, if you don’t know what it is, pass the phone to Mark.’
She snorted. ‘I know what it is. Of course I know! You’re in trouble, girlie.’
I clambered over a fallen tree trunk and snagged my jeans on something sharp. I scowled as I extricated myself. ‘Clearly you don’t know anything. Go back to your bridge.’
