The City of Lizards Read online

  Minerva grinned. “Very well. Let’s make it heavier then!” she exclaimed and jumped into the crate, joining her friend.

  The hoist swung violently but did not lower by an inch. The two girls raised their eyes to Ravi in expectation.

  “You’re the only one missing,” Minerva said.

  “Come on, Ravi! Don’t be such a party pooper!” Thomasina chided him.

  The boy hesitated, holding Pendragon tight.

  “Everything will be all right,” Minerva tried to reassure him.

  “Come on, what are you waiting for?” Thomasina urged. She winked. “Next stop: City of the Ravagers!”

  “And the treasure!” Minerva added. Ravi buried his face into Pendragon’s cuddly fur, then he looked at his friends who were smiling at him encouragingly. He decided that he had no choice: sometimes you just had to take a leap of faith.

  And leap he did: he closed his eyes and jumped into the crate. The device was easily triggered by his weight, and they immediately began to go down. Faster and faster, wobbling like jelly.

  “Wahoo! Hold ooon!” Minerva shouted.

  “Treasure, here we come!” Thomasina cried.

  “C-can’t we slow down just a l-little?” Ravi asked, clinging on to Pendragon. The animal’s large, furry ears stood straight up, pulled by the air, and the dog started howling.

  “No,” Minerva answered. “Now we’re heavier than the load that was holding the rope,” she explained. “We’ll stop only when we reach the bottom.”

  “B-but how long is it going to take to reach the b-bottom?” the boy asked.

  Thomasina gently patted him on his shoulder. “Don’t fret, Ravi,” she said. “Everything will be fine because we have respected the first rule of adventures.”

  “Wh-what rule is that?” Ravi asked. The hoist was shaking so badly that he almost bit his tongue.

  “Never go on an adventure alone!” Thomasina replied. She placed an arm around his shoulder and did the same with Minerva.

  And so, huddled all together, they were ready to face whatever might be waiting for them down below.

  The fall seemed endless. If we go on like this, we’ll get to the center of the Earth! Ravi thought.

  His friends, on the other hand, didn’t seem worried at all. The more they shook, the more piercing were their shrills of joy, as if they had been enjoying a rollercoaster ride instead of being on their way to a mysterious — maybe dangerous — destination.

  Somewhere along the way the rock tunnel began to narrow until the makeshift elevator suddenly came to a stop so violent that the backlash sent the three kids head over heels. The crate did not crash, though, because the bottom was covered in a thick layer of soft moss.

  “Last stop!” Minerva announced and immediately climbed out of the crate to see where they were.

  Thomasina was close behind her. “Wow, what a crazy ride!” she said excitedly. She straightened her dress and took a couple of steps forward, holding up the lamp.

  Ravi made sure that Pendragon was okay. “We’ve arrived,” he whispered. The dog joyfully licked his face. Then they carefully caught up with the two girls.

  Minerva was glancing about in amazement. “I’d say we’re at least at the bottom of Admiral Rock,” she observed. “Maybe even deeper than that.”

  “Come on, let’s keep moving,” Thomasina urged them, anxious to get to the heart of the adventure. “This way!” she said, pointing at a tunnel dug in the rock in front of them. She eagerly took the lead.

  For a while they went on in single file, until Thomasina shouted, “STOP!”

  “What is it?” Ravi called from the back.

  The two girls consulted with each other, then Minerva turned around. “Well,” she began, “there’s a little problem …”

  “I knew it!” Ravi cried out.

  “Nothing to worry about,” Thomasina butted in.

  “We have already found a solution,” Minerva confirmed. “Could you put your hands on my shoulders and follow us without looking down?”

  “Why is that?” Ravi asked, suspicious. He made them step aside so he could see what the problem was and was immediately paralyzed. The tunnel suddenly came to an end over a dark chasm, and the only way onward was a narrow stone bridge that hung in the air. The boy stared at the abyss below him. “Forget about it!” he yelled. “You know I’m afraid of heights!”

  Thomasina’s blue eyes glared at him. “Well, at this point you have two options: you can either go back and find a way to activate the hoist on your own — without a lamp — while Minerva and I go on. With Pendragon, obviously,” she said firmly. “Or,” she went on in a more gentle tone, “you can hold your arms around my waist like this,” she said, putting Ravi’s helpless arms around the ribbon that adorned her beautiful blue dress, “and come with us.”

  Ravi blushed and felt so dizzy just for being so close to his crush, that he followed her without so much as a complaint.

  Minerva, together with Pendragon, followed her friends, whistling merrily.

  The bridge was very narrow. Ravi closed his eyes like Minerva had suggested and let Thomasina guide him. Luckily, he was so focused on not messing up the neat ribbon that he didn’t notice the many rocks that were falling off the bridge and plummeting into the abyss as they walked on.

  Minerva did notice, but she decided not to worry about it. For the time being, at least. “One problem at a time. Isn’t that right, Pendragon?” she whispered to the dog.

  A problem came up immediately, though.

  A bigger rock broke off the bridge, and smaller stones rubbled off and spread over the walkway, making it slippery. Thomasina slid and lost her balance for a moment. She promptly regained it, but to do so she threw out her arms and dropped her bag, which plunged into the darkness and disappeared.

  “What happened?” Ravi asked, his eyes still closed.

  “Nothing serious,” the girl answered. “I dropped my bag.” She looked into the void below her and sighed. Unfortunately, they had just lost a number of things that would have been useful for underground survival. At least we’re safe, she thought as she walked on.

  They went on without any other accident until …

  “Uh-oh,” Thomasina said when they got to the other side of the bridge. “Which way do we go now?”

  They were standing in front of six different tunnels.

  Ravi opened his eyes and, when he realized they were safe, he immediately stepped away from the girl. He blushed as red as a tomato.

  “We could toss a coin,” Minerva suggested.

  Pendragon, however, decided for them by walking straight into the first tunnel to their right.

  Ravi rushed after him. “Wait up!” he yelled.

  Minerva looked at Thomasina. “I’d say we have no choice,” she observed. “We have to follow them.”

  Her friend nodded, and they both ran after the boy and the dog.

  “Pendragon! Stop!” Ravi cried again.

  However, the dog had been dying to stretch its limbs after all the time he had been stuck in the crate and then carried in Minerva’s arms. So the children simply ran to keep up with his pace. That is why they didn’t see the first trap.

  It was Thomasina who stepped on the tight trip wire laid on the stony ground: they heard a hiss and then a huge saber fell from above.

  “Look out!’ Only Minerva’s reflexes prevented Thomasina from being cut in half by the sword. Minerva yanked her back by the collar of her dress.

  “Wow, that was close!” Thomasina cried.

  “Hey! What happened?” Ravi asked. He had finally managed to catch Pendragon and had come back to see what had kept the others behind.

  Minerva pointed at the sharp-edged saber that was dangling from the ceiling.

  Ravi’s face went white. “B-but … it wasn’t there a
minute ago!” he exclaimed.

  “Thomasina set off a trap,” the girl explained.

  “That’s right. Your dog picked the right way all right!” Thomasina grunted, unflustered by what had just happened but more than ready to blame Ravi.

  “He’s not my dog,” the boy protested. “He’s Agatha’s,” he pointed out. “Besides, you’re the ones who wanted to come down here.” In the spur of the moment, he took a couple of steps back and didn’t realize that he had stepped on a little lever.

  “Nobody made you come!” Thomasina snapped back.

  Minerva raised an arm. “Quiet!” she commanded. “Can you hear that weird noise?”

  The two kids fell silent. Far away, something was booming between the stone walls.

  “It sounds like thunder,” Ravi said finally.

  “I doubt there’s a storm coming,” Thomasina replied.

  The noise was getting louder, and it really did sound like a thunderstorm. The rumbling was almost unbearable, and then the earth started shaking.

  Minerva opened her eyes wide. For once, she was really worried. “LET’S GOOOOOOOO!” she cried.

  They started running like crazy, but the booms grew even louder.

  Holding Pendragon tight, Minerva glanced over her back: large boulders were rolling toward them. “Faster! Faster!” she urged her friends.

  Nevertheless, the boulders kept closing in and the tunnel was too narrow to dodge them. Minerva looked around desperately searching for a way out: nothing, just the stone tunnel … until she saw a crack in the ground right in front of them.

  “Let’s jump in there!” she yelled, pointing at the opening. “Come on!”

  They all took a long jump and curled up the best they could. The boulders rolled past over their heads. A little later, when the rumbling had died out in the distance, a red-haired head popped out to check if it was safe above.

  “It’s clear,” Minerva said with a sneeze. The rocks had kicked up a large amount of dust.

  The four of them crept out of their hiding place and sat down to catch their breath.

  “Goodness! That was really close …” Minerva sighed.

  “I’ve never run so much in my entire life,” a breathless Ravi panted.

  Luckily, Thomasina had managed to save the lamp, so they could look at each other. Their faces were dust masks, but their clothes had definitely had it worse: they were crumpled, stained, and smeared with dirt. Thomasina’s stunning dance dress was torn to shreds.

  The girl looked down at herself. “Oh, well,” she said thoughtfully, “it’s just as well. I don’t even know if I’ll make it in time for the dance anyway.”

  “We don’t even know if we’ll ever get out of here!” Ravi said. “We must have set off another trap. There are traps all over the place down here. We’ve got to go back. I don’t feel like getting cut to pieces by flying swords or squashed like a bug by boulders.”

  Minerva ran a hand through her dusty curls and pondered. “You’re right. The Ravagers of the Sea must have set up loads of traps to protect their treasure.” She looked at Thomasina. “Maybe we had better go back and find out if there is a way to avoid them.”

  “Well, this is definitely the wrong tunnel,” Thomasina observed, glancing at Ravi.

  “Do you really think the other tunnels are safe?” Ravi grunted.

  In the meantime, Minerva had made up her mind. “Let’s go back. And please, watch your step.”

  “Hallelujah! Finally a sensible decision!” Ravi said.

  However, he was very disappointed when Minerva, instead of crossing the bridge and going back to the hoist, stopped where the path split into the six tunnels. Her freckled face frowned in concentration. “So, we know that traps are used to protect the treasure from intruders,” she said. “However, when the Ravagers of the Sea came down here they must have followed a safe way, with no dangers whatsoever …”

  Thomasina’s eyes lit up. “You’re right!”

  “Okay. But I’d guess they were the only ones who knew about it,” Ravi said.

  Minerva looked around as if she were looking for something. Suddenly, she crouched on all fours and started searching the floor. Thinking it was some kind of game, Pendragon set after her, sniffing around like a police dog.

  Just when her friends had begun to suspect that she had gone bananas, the girl stopped and used both her hands to tear off pieces of moss from a jutting rock at the entrance of the the third tunnel.

  “That’s it!” she exclaimed.

  “What have you found?” asked Ravi.

  “Give me the lamp!” Minerva said to Thomasina.

  The girl and Ravi got closer, and she handed Minerva the lamp. Minerva shone a light on the jutting rock. Something was carved into the stone — an X followed by a vertical line: XI

  “That’s eleven in Roman numerals,” Thomasina said. “We learned about them in school.”

  Minerva smirked slyly. “There were eleven Ravagers,” she said. “This must be their symbol.”

  “They used a chisel,” Ravi observed as he felt the rock. “The marks are deep and neat.”

  “If they bothered,” Minerva said, “they did it to mark the safest way. No traps.”

  Enthused, Thomasina picked up the lamp. “Great! Let’s go this way then!”

  Minerva followed her right away, and finally so did Ravi — but with a heavy heart. Some of what his friend had just said might have been true. But she might have been wrong as well. The problem was that the only way to find out was to keep going. So he called Pendragon with a whistle and started walking. He bent over to whisper in the dog’s ears. “Adventures are not as easy as they look, old buddy.”

  The tunnel went deeper and deeper into the bowels of the earth and Minerva must have been right, because they followed the XI marks scattered here and there along the way and went on without so much as a problem. That is until they were knocked down by a violent gust of wind that ripped the lamp from Thomasina’s hand and sent it crashing to the ground.

  Darkness closed in on them.

  “What now?” Ravi shouted.

  Now they were in deep trouble.

  “What are we gonna do?” Ravi urged. “We’re done for.”

  “And the flashlight’s in my bag,” Thomasina said sadly.

  “We won’t be able to see the XI mark now,” Ravi insisted. “We’ll walk straight into another trap …”

  Minerva didn’t lose heart. She looked over the lamp. Once she knew for certain that it was useless, she leaned against the wall and took a couple of careful steps toward where the wind had come from. After a bit, she squinted. “Hey. Something’s glowing down there!” she said. She went on at a steadier pace, and as she did, she realized that the light at the end of the tunnel was getting brighter.

  Her friends caught up with her, and they soon came upon a huge cavity, swept by powerful winds.

  “Wow!” a speechless Ravi said. “Where are we?”

  They had reached an incredible underground world. Before them lay a body of water, constantly swept by the winds, just like the ocean in a raging storm. All around them, the walls of the cave were covered in gigantic quartz crystals of the oddest shapes: flowers, stars, and randomly cut figures that glistened, reflecting the colors of the rainbow-like prisms.

  Mesmerized, Minerva walked up to a diamond-shaped crystal: it really looked like a precious stone. She ran her finger across it and then looked at her hand. Her finger was covered in a thin layer of glittering dust. “Take a look at this!” she cried out. “This dust is glowing. And then the crystals reflect the light.” She smelled her finger and then gave it a lick.

  “No!” Ravi tried to stop her, but it was too late.

  “Hmm,” Minerva said. “It tastes just like Timothy’s seaweed stew.”

  “Well, it could actually be s
eaweed,” Thomasina pointed out. “After all, we are practically at the bottom of the ocean …”

  Ravi picked up some of the dust for himself and studied it. “Glowing seaweed,” he muttered fascinated.

  “There are also glowing fish in the sea,” Minerva reminded him. “It might be the same thing.”

  “Wow! What a place!” Ravi gasped, glancing about. For the first time since the beginning of that adventure, he felt happy. It was like they were in a magical underground garden. “This is the perfect place to have a snack.” He sighed. “If only we had a snack …”he said sadly, thinking of Mrs. Flopps’s strawberry scones.

  “I had three chocolate bars in my bag,” Thomasina grumbled regretfully. “You’re not supposed to start an adventure on an empty stomach, you know.”

  “Well, there’s no point in thinking about it now,” Minerva said. “At least we’ve solved our light problem,” she said merrily. “And the sooner we find the treasure, the sooner we can go back home and have a snack!” She spotted the XI mark engraved on a red crystal and walked on.

  There were other wonderful things to discover down there, like a giant petrified mushroom forest and other weird plants the likes of which they had never seen. Suddenly, the body of water grew bigger and bigger, until it formed a kind of inland sea, which Thomasina was quick to name Thomasina’s Ocean.

  “Then that over there is Mount Minerva!” her friend said, pointing at a peak full of crystals that shone like diamonds.

  “And that’s River Ravi!” Ravi exclaimed, leaning over to look at his reflection in a shiny pink creek.

  And so, they went on, making up the geography of the world they had discovered. They felt like explorers in a marvelous new continent. They raced to find the next mark of the Ravagers of the Sea, and then they continued on: Thomasina led the pack, then Minerva, and finally Ravi with Pendragon.

  Suddenly the wind stopped, and the air became so humid that Ravi and Minerva’s hair became all damp and crimped and frizzy. Even Pendragon now looked more like a sheep than like a dog. Strangely, only Thomasina’s hair stayed in place.