December (21 page)

‘Watch out!’ I lunged at Winter, knocking her out of the way as a huge rock fell, narrowly missing her.

The close call shook me out of my stupor. Boges was right. ‘We’ll die if we don’t get out now!’ I shouted.

‘That’s what I’ve been trying to tell both of you!’ screeched Boges.

I grabbed Winter’s arm and pulled her along, following Boges. We were about to run across the shaking floor and get outside when a huge crash made me turn back to see the wall I’d been facing moments ago collapsing. If we’d still been standing there, we would have been crushed by its bulk. Like a line of dominoes, the length of the wall crumpled in a cloud of dust.

And then something amazing happened …

The collapsed wall revealed a black cavity behind it.

‘It was a false wall!’ Winter shouted. She too
had stopped to witness the collapse. ‘That’s why the tile steps suddenly stopped. See? There’s a space behind it!’ She ran back through the dust cloud to peer into the space that had opened up—it was about the size of a backyard shed. ‘And there’s the other red tile! See? Just here, where the wall was stopping us before! I
told
you there’d have to be another one. The Riddle said so!’

Winter pointed and another huge rock fell from above and shattered on impact just
centimetres
from her. It sent up more murky dust, acting like a smokescreen.

I heard Boges swear as he was struck by something on the side of the face.

Now we really did have to run for our lives. I thought I heard the clock chiming again—eleven o’clock—but I couldn’t tell, over all the rumbling and panic.

I grabbed Winter’s arm once more and started dragging her out. But as I dodged another rock crashing close behind us I caught a glimpse of something colourful within the dark cavity. Something on the floor, just beyond the last of the red tiles.

I squinted. Protected for centuries from the elements by the fake wall, was a perfect mosaic! In it was a white monkey holding a ball—an orb—just like the monkey in Dad’s drawing!

‘Boges, Winter! Wait! Look!’

As my friends and I stood mesmerised by the amazing tiled image, the floor cracked before our eyes and the monkey mosaic began to destruct. The mosaic was buckling up and then collapsing apart, like in an earthquake.

‘It’s a prophecy!’ cried Winter. ‘The whole thing’s breaking up!’

‘The orb must be riven,’ I whispered, stunned, as the image of the white monkey holding the orb seemed to lift up momentarily, then
subside
, breaking up and draining downwards in a waterfall of puzzle pieces. It vanished into the darkness under the floor like being swallowed by a sinkhole.

Masonry and stones pelted down around us, while outside, the bulldozer revved again,
making
another assault on the surrounding walls, attacking what little remained of the structure.

Fearfully we made our way to the edge of the hole that was getting larger by the second. More and more of the floor collapsed and disappeared into the cavity.

Any moment, I thought we would join the rest of the floor, and be sucked down into the
darkness
of the foundations of the Cragkill Keep. Then suddenly, the sound of the bulldozer stopped.

The shower of rocks and stones eased.

The floor movements shuddered to a halt.

I seized the opportunity and crept right up to the widening hole and peered into it.

Under the piled-up earth and broken tiles, I could see the corner of a wooden chest.

Boges and Winter teetered over beside me, dodging falling debris.

‘Dude, that must be the treasure!’ Boges shouted.

With that, the three of us reached in and started digging away like mad dogs, trying to free the wooden chest from the rubble that had fallen in on top of it.

‘Cal?’ came a voice, approaching from outside. ‘Cal, are you in there?’

‘Sharkey!’ Boges shouted out. ‘We’re over here! Come and see what we’ve found!’

Nelson appeared in the crumbling archway.

He strode over, looking up and around,
overwhelmed
by the disaster zone inside the Keep. ‘I’ve stopped that crazy guy in the bulldozer, but this place is dangerously unstable. You need to get out.’

As he spoke, a huge stone from the top of
the wall crashed down behind him, making us all jump.

Sharkey stopped when he saw what we were all staring at. He whistled. ‘Seems like you’ve found what you were looking for!’

‘We found it, all right!’ I said, almost
exploding
with excitement. ‘Can you give us a hand?’ I asked, indicating the pile of rubble in the cavity under the floor. Adrenaline was surging through every muscle in my body, making me shiver uncontrollably.

Eventually the four of us were able to haul the extremely heavy chest up.

Puffing and panting, we dropped it near the archway. As it settled on the ground, one side of the ancient timber box split open, and a stream of gold spilled out! A steady flood of golden coins, lit by the brilliant generator lights, kept
spreading
in a gleaming pool!

It was like a dream come true. I could feel the excitement of the others. I realised I had a huge grin on my face.

Another heavy stone from the ceiling crashed straight into the top of the chest, splitting the lid into jagged pieces, sending more gold and precious jewels cascading out.

We all stepped back, speechless. Through the
split timber I could see the gleam of gold, the flash of colourful gems, and what looked like an ancient document, partly obscured by the broken rock. But before we did anything else, I needed proof. If the contents of this chest turned out to be the Ormond Singularity, I needed proof that I’d found it before the deadline. Before time was up at midnight on 31 December.

‘Boges!’ I said, turning to them all. ‘We did it! Get the camera out and start filming!’

‘While you’re doing that,’ said Sharkey, ‘I’ll get some big canvas sacks I have in the back of my car.’

I barely heard his words as I threw off bits of the broken rock and splintered timber until the contents of the chest were plain to see: a
collection
of amazing jewels and gold coins, gold chains, ropes of pearls and, most importantly, the signed document that sat on the top of it all.

‘We did it!’ I yelled again. I threw my arms around my friends and the three of us jumped around with excitement. ‘Let’s have a look at what we’ve discovered!’

My hands were trembling as I carefully lifted out the document. I knew from the touch that it was vellum. I smoothed it open so Boges could film it more easily.

The Queen and Black Tom had a baby together. A baby who no-one could know about
.

Carefully, I picked up a small book from the chest. The cover was decorated with coloured silk stitching. Flowers, Tudor roses and tiny pearls were woven around the initial ‘E’.

‘Hey!’ I said, recognising it. ‘We’ve seen this before—in that portrait you discovered, Winter, in the Sotheby’s catalogue. Hanging from her waist in the painting.’

I put it down, my attention taken by something else. Tucked down beside the pile of gold coins lay an embroidered leather satchel. Carefully, I opened it. It contained something made of really fine material, embroidered with pearls and gold. I picked it up. For a few seconds it hung in my hands—a precious silky robe, made for a tiny baby. But then it fell into shreds, dropping away from my hands into dusty fragments.

‘The silk has perished!’ cried Winter. ‘What a shame! But look at the beautiful trimming! How sad for the princess—and later the queen. She could never acknowledge her baby. She’d have been in huge danger if people ever found out. She would have been killed over it. And look at this!’ she said, picking up another locket. ‘It’s a bit like the Ormond Jewel!’

She passed it to me. The locket, with a yellow
crystal surrounded by diamonds and gold on its top lid, opened to reveal a miniature of Princess Elizabeth on one side, and on the other, the portrait of a boy, holding a rose.

‘The boy with the rose,’ breathed Winter. ‘Like your dad’s drawing!’

‘The boy,’ I repeated. ‘It wasn’t just the secret love between Black Tom and Princess Elizabeth. The
greater
secret love was their son—the child they had together.’

Winter attempted to pick up the shreds of rotted yellow silk, gathering them into her hands together with the embroidered borders of gold and pearls. ‘Elizabeth made this for her baby. The baby she could never share with the world. She was the “great unknown lady” who sadly couldn’t name herself.’

‘This little guy is the reason for the Ormond Singularity. He grew up and became Piers Duiske Ormond. All this,’ I said, pointing to the treasure trove and documents signed by the Queen, ‘was supposed to be claimed by Piers Duiske Ormond, for his family and his heirs, but something
happened
and it was never retrieved. Maybe his dad, Black Tom, died without ever revealing where it was hidden exactly. We’ll never know why it wasn’t claimed. The descendants of Piers Duiske Ormond kept the line going. The line that
started with Black Tom and Princess Elizabeth. My ancestor, Piers Ormond, was gathering
information
about this secret when the Great War interrupted him. Dad took over and somehow got hold of the Ormond Jewel, but then he got sick and …’ My voice trailed away. I hoped that somewhere, somehow, my dad could see what I’d done and be happy about it.

‘The line came right down to you,’ said Winter. ‘It would have all belonged to your dad if he’d lived—he was the older twin. But now it falls to you. You’re the older twin. It’s been here for centuries, just waiting for whoever could
decipher
the Ormond Riddle and read the Ormond Jewel.’

I wanted to say something but it was hard to talk. Thoughts of Dad and Rafe were making me simultaneously overjoyed and sad.

A shower of stones reminded me that the
situation
here was pretty dicey. We needed to get this gear secured somehow and then get out.

‘How much do you think all this is worth?’ wondered Boges, his eyebrows almost jumping off his forehead with excitement.

‘Millions,’ answered Sharkey, who had reappeared, carrying some big canvas bags. ‘At least. Something like this,’ he said, coming closer to look at the book, ‘is worth a fortune in
itself. The Queen embroidered it with her very own initial.’

‘What about all these parchments written in Latin?’ asked Winter. ‘The titles and deeds to different properties?’

‘Millions more,’ said Sharkey. ‘Enough talk. Start loading everything into these bags.’

I straightened up, puzzled at the change in tone of his voice.

‘Shouldn’t we call the authorities?’ I said. ‘I want to do this properly. I’ve discovered the Ormond Singularity before the deadline and I want this acknowledged. All legal and above board.’

Boges and Winter nodded in support.

‘We can do all that in the morning,’ said
Sharkey
. ‘As soon as the banks open, you should lodge all this. You won’t be able to take it out of the country without Customs clearance. In the meantime, we really just need to secure it all.’

‘I guess you’re right,’ I said, but deep down inside me, I couldn’t help thinking
something was wrong. Danger was close
.

Nelson gave each of us one of the bags and we started loading them up with the contents of the treasure chest. I filled my bag with the heaviest stuff first—gold coins and chains. On top of that I placed ropes of pearls and shining rings, and then finally I added the book and the
embroidered leather satchel with the Ormond Singularity inside.

‘OK,’ said Sharkey, nursing his canvas bag, into which he’d just squeezed one huge ruby ring before securing the flaps. By the time our four bags were filled and sealed, there wasn’t much left at the bottom of the crumbling wooden chest. ‘OK,’ repeated Sharkey, ‘let’s load up my vehicle.’

With the walls still shaking around us, and stones crashing down, we staggered with the weight of the treasure in our bags and, finally, the four of us emerged from the ruins of Cragkill Keep. We continued across the uneven ground to where Sharkey had parked his hired ute—he’d driven right over a section of the wire fencing.