“Paloma is just going to search you. Stand with your legs apart and arms in the air.”
Paloma the bird made little cawing noises as she ducked and dived in-between our legs, through our arms, and round our heads. It was almost like a circus act, and also the weirdest thing I have ever encountered.
When the search was over, Aradia beckoned us and gave us each a silver pentagram. It was identical to the one that had been attached to Mum’s shoe, the time when she had gone through the wall and then denied it. I remembered seeing it float down the stairs and disintegrate into tiny sparkles. The stars were made of the most flimsy, thin material, a bit like silk, I suppose. They felt so fragile and yet strong, too, like a spider’s web. Aradia motioned to us to put the pentagrams on to our chests like a badge.
I hesitated. How on earth was this going to stick to my top? But of course, one pat with my hand and it had stuck like glue; in fact, I tried to remove it and re-stick it further down, but it wouldn’t budge.
“You may go through.” Aradia gestured toward a long corridor, and Paloma fluttered off ahead of us, presumably showing us the way. We followed her graceful flight down the corridor, which had doors leading off.
Every door had a brightly coloured number on it. We seemed to be walking very quickly, and I noticed a dazzling orange number “57”, a fuchsia pink “21”, a green sparkly “15”, and a sunshine yellow number “13”. The numbers were totally random, and I wondered whether they had any relevance as to what was behind that particular door.
Eventually, Paloma stopped outside a shiny gold number “3”, which was the smallest number I had seen. She tapped her beak against the door and then flew off. I was feeling anxious, and I stole a glance at Adi, who seemed to be taking everything in his stride.
“What happens now, Adi?” I whispered frantically.
“I don’t know, Rosemary, but I think I might need some clean underpants.”
Despite myself, I giggled.
The door creaked open and together we stepped forwards to enter the room.
My stomach met my mouth as our feet made contact with not floor but air, and, before we knew what was happening, we were tumbling downwards at an incredible rate.
10
Three Falling
I had never been so scared in my life. I didn’t know if I was still screaming or if it was Adi’s screams I could hear ringing in my ears.
It was pitch black, and I thought, this is the end. But then suddenly it wasn’t.
We landed on something soft and bouncy, which if I could have guessed, I would have said it must have been a cloud, for it seemed to literally catch us and hold us like a giant, squidgy hand. Adi said there was no way you could fall that far for that long and survive by just landing on something soft, so anti-gravity must have been in effect and stopped us from being killed. In other words, before we hit the ground we must have started to go back upwards slowly to adjust our speed, so that we landed safely. It didn’t quite make sense to me, but I had more important things to worry about.
“Adi, are you there?” I asked once I’d got my breath back.
“Yeah are you okay, Rosemary? I don’t know if this was such a good idea, you know. How are we gonna get back?”
“Back? You’ve only just arrived,” came a faraway voice.
“Adi, grab my hand. I’m scared,” I whispered.
“Me too,” he replied.
“Who’s there?” I finally plucked up courage to ask.
Let me tell you, I’m not that keen on the dark anyway, so to have fallen goodness knows how far in the dark and have landed in the dark and be spoken to by something you can’t see cos its DARK isn’t much fun!
They might as well have read my mind, for suddenly the lights came on and, boy, were they dazzling!
“That’s better. Now I can see you both,” grinned the face behind the voice.
I blinked a few times, as I seemed to be having a conversation with a gigantic tawny owl. He was about five-foot-tall, with shiny plumage and an incredibly polished beak. His claws were huge, and the talons creamy white at the tips, so it looked like he’d had a French polish on his toes. I couldn’t stop staring.
“Are you staring at my French manicure or my apron?” the owl said to me. His apron was pink and frilly with I Know I’m Wise, Tell Me I’m Sexy written on it. So to be fair, yes, I probably was staring at both.
“Er, erm, both really,” I said boldly.
He laughed. “Yes, well, I’m a modern owl. There’s nothing wrong with a manicure, and it’s good to be in touch with one’s feminine side, though if I’m honest, they muddled the colour up in the factory. I did actually order a pale-blue apron, but never mind. Now you’re both here, what can I do for you?”
Adi and I both looked at each other blankly. What were we doing in this huge room with stone flooring (even more of a miracle that we landed so safely)? The room was a large banqueting hall with trestle tables piled up in one corner, large ornate looking lights sprouting out from stone walls, and heavy, plush, dark-red velvet curtains at each corner.
“I haven’t got long,” continued the owl. “I’ve got to set this room up for a large banquet tonight. By the way, why on earth did you pick Room 3 to start with? You could have got here by coming down the stairs in Number 55. You know what they say: avoid the dive, pick 55. Didn’t you realise room three only means one thing? Free falling! Well, we call it three falling here.” He chuckled and wiped his eyes with a surprisingly dextrous finger hidden away under a shock of feathers.
I realised the door numbers did have a system of sorts, but I guess you had to know what each number stood for in order to know what was going to greet you behind it.
I glanced at Adi, who I think was still flabbergasted. I’d had a lifetime to get used to strange goings on, so I wasn’t going to let a giant, talking owl phase me.
“We came through to look for our Aunty Phyllis who disappeared recently in strange circumstances. We didn’t choose this door to come through. Aradia’s raven brought us to it.”
“Ar,” the owl said very slowly and with a great deal of feeling. “Ar. Yes, yes, Paloma. I wouldn’t have much faith in her, personally,” he continued. “Very pleasing on the eye, but totally unreliable. She, my young pumpernickels, has led you up the garden path, and Hecate won’t be pleased when she hears about this.”
“Who’s Hecate?” I asked tentatively.
“She’s my boss. In fact, she’s everyone’s boss right now, and she’s been brought in from Headquarters to our North West branch here to try to get to the bottom of dear Phyllis’ disappearance. I think if you come again, you really ought to go straight to Room 21 and meet her.”
“Now, young man, what are you doing over there?”
I looked to where the owl was addressing Adi, who was holding his ear to the wall and concentrating.
“Adi, what is it?” I joined him at the stone wall.
“I can hear crying, Rosemary. It’s really weird. It sounds far away, and it sounds a bit like your sister. You don’t think she followed us through the wall, do you?”
Before I could reply, the owl interjected with, “No, not possible to follow you through, unless she was actually standing with you when the Gates of Aradne opened. What you are hearing, young man, are the cries of the child from the other world, not this one. The veil is very thin, so you will hear if anyone is in distress from whence you came.”