Wraith(94)

I crossed my fingers that the Filits and Gneiss would keep themselves occupied fighting each other and racing to search the castle dungeons for the Stone. I was working with an entirely different countdown.

I spun away from the main roads, hiding as much as possible whilst maintaining my speed. I kept up a steady jog to the bowling alley. There was the occasional boom in the distance, along with some yelling and gunfire, but I blotted it out and focused on myself.

I slowed down when I reached the approach to the alley but no one jumped out in front of me to stop me. I suppose there was no longer any need for guards since Marrock was no longer there.

Once inside, I cast around. He might have mentioned other tunnels that led from here but I didn’t know where they were. I searched the front of the house, the deserted kitchen where the smell of old grease still clung to the air, and various nooks and crannies. There was nothing. Then my eyes fell upon the silent bowling alley lanes. Hmmm.

Skirting round the back to the door marked ‘Staff Only’, I found myself behind the lanes. The heavy apparatus that returned the skittles to their places lay dead; it hadn’t worked for a long time. I examined everything but it wasn’t until I reached the very end that I spotted the hole leading downwards. With my heart in my mouth, I wasted no further time and began to descend.

When I reached the bottom, my eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness. There were three tunnels branching off; the left-hand one headed towards the river and the direct escape route that Marrock had mentioned. Whether the right tunnel or the middle one led underneath the Tolbooth was anyone’s guess. I debated for a moment and then elected to travel down the middle one.

For a long time, the only sound was my breath and my feet. I pounded along until I came to a dead end. The tunnel was impressively shored up with timber; in another life, I’d have stopped to admire the effort that had gone into it. Instead I cursed that it led to nowhere. I’d made the wrong choice and had to go back.

I was halfway back to the tunnel’s entrance when a shuffling noise reached my ears. I stopped dead, my heart racing. Something was there but I had no idea what.

Slipping into my shadow, I left my body and darted forwards. Whatever – or whoever – I’d heard was now silent but that didn’t mean they weren’t still there. I skittered on and caught a glimpse of something moving. I leapt up to the ceiling and speeded up.

My wraith form was soundless but when I saw who was there, I almost screamed. I dropped down, landing in front of Gabriel.

He jerked and stared at me. ‘Saiya?’

I nodded, before realising he could barely see the movement. I raised my shadow hand and brushed it against his cheek then, seething, sprinted back to my body. As soon as my consciousness returned, I shouted, ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ My voice echoed down the tunnel and, a moment later, his answer drifted back.

‘I couldn’t let a wraith take all the credit for saving Scotland,’ he yelled back.

I rolled my eyes. Was that supposed to be funny or was he being serious? ‘Don’t come down this way. It must be the right-hand tunnel that leads to the Tolbooth. I’ll catch you up,’ I called, silently adding ‘idiot’.

He must have kept his steps deliberately slow because he wasn’t far along the tunnel when I reached him. Huffing, I glared at him. ‘You shouldn’t be here,’ I said.

‘Neither should you,’ he commented. ‘I thought about what you’d said about moving faster on your own and I decided I didn’t care. You might need me.’

‘You were making a lot of noise. If someone else had come down here and heard you…’

He frowned. ‘First of all, I was completely silent. Secondly, if anyone else is down here you’ll definitely need my help.’

I scowled, even though there was a happy lurch in my stomach that he’d come. He watched me for a moment before speaking again. ‘The Gneiss goblins have broken through the walls. They’re here in the city. They wouldn’t be doing that unless they thought the Filits had the Stone within their sights. They seem to be moving towards the castle though. That’s great for us because they’re not looking this way. We couldn’t have planned for a better diversion.’

‘Mmm.’

‘You did it, didn’t you?’

‘Mmm.’

He sighed, scratching his chin in apparent resignation. ‘I don’t know how you managed it but it was a clever idea. It meant I could get here without any problems. It means we’ve got time to locate the Stone of Scone and do what’s required.’

I nodded. ‘Let’s get a move on. Time is running out.’

Together, we ran down the tunnel. The further in we got, the more difficult it became. Towards the end, we were both hunched over. Gabriel’s large frame made it particularly difficult for him. When I finally spied a ladder reaching upwards, he was all but crawling.

‘We’re here,’ I told him. ‘We’ve made it.’

‘I should go first,’ he said.

I ignored him and started upwards, making short work of the ladder.

‘Saiya…’

‘Shhh. I’m not trying to be a damn hero here, Gabriel. I don’t want to be a bloody hero. But I’m smaller than you are so, if the tunnel narrows again, it makes sense for me to do this.’

I sensed him wanting to argue but instead he climbed up after me.