The Mask of Destiny (11 page)

Bare feet squelched into wet sand, sounding like a triple-headed sludge pump across the bay. Gerald sank almost to his knees and strained to extract his foot from the boggy silt to take another step.

‘This stuff's like my mum's pea soup,' he said.

‘It really grabs hold of you,' Ruby said.

Three trails of foot holes, like mortar strikes in the tidal flats, snaked back to the island. Gerald, Sam and Ruby, their shoes hanging by knotted laces around their necks, were finding it hard going as they trudged further into the drained swamp that was the Bay of Mont-Saint-Michel at low tide.

Gerald stopped to take a bottle of water from his backpack. He sank a little deeper. ‘We're hundreds of metres out. This must be getting close,' he said. He took a drink and passed the bottle to Sam.

Ruby held the sketch up. The position of the spire, the steep stone walls, the curve of the bay, the pitched roofs of the abbey and the fortified town below—it was like she was staring at a photograph taken from right where they were standing.

‘Well, Gerald, it's your party,' she said. ‘Do you recognise anything? Feel anything?'

Gerald took the sketch in both hands and concentrated. He studied the illustration, then the real thing. There was an uncanny accuracy, even down to the swooping gulls.

‘Nothing,' he said. ‘Not a clue. Maybe if I had the ruby.'

Sam peered over his shoulder. ‘The only real difference is that in your drawing the tide's in. Those waves are tossing up a fair bit of spray.'

‘Maybe we need to try again at high tide,' Gerald said. ‘Find a boat and come back.' He went to take a step but his legs were held tight in the boggy sand—he overbalanced and toppled onto his hands, sinking into silt up to his wrists.

‘You might not have to wait that long,' Ruby said. ‘I think the tide is already coming in.' She clamped her hands behind her right knee and tugged. The rising water spilled into the gaps around her legs and filled the holes with a sandy soup.

‘Uh oh,' Gerald said.

They stared out at the centre of the bay. Where just minutes before there had been a broad expanse of silt and sand baking in the late morning sun, there was now a smooth sheen of water, reflecting the sky like an enormous mirror.

‘I'm stuck!' Ruby said. She heaved on her legs, grabbing at one knee and then the other. ‘I can't move.'

Sam took a step towards his sister, straining to get his feet above the marshy silt.

‘Don't struggle,' he said. ‘It'll just suck you in harder. Here, grab my hand.'

Ruby reached out and clasped her brother by the wrist.

‘When did you become a quicksand expert?' she said.

‘Um…watching Tarzan movies,' Sam said.

‘Terrific.'

Gerald lifted himself upright and was shocked to find the water was up to his calves. ‘The guy at the hotel wasn't kidding,' he said. ‘This is rising fast.'

He drove his knees to one side, then the other, trying to break the suction that gripped his legs. He threw himself down again. This time the water was almost up to his elbows. Muttering a string of curses, he strained forward and finally slid out from the sand to lie face down in the water. He rolled over and edged closer to Ruby, grabbing her other hand.

‘Try to lie down,' he said. ‘Then slide your legs out.'

Gulls twisted and looped above them, their guttural cries sounding across the bay. The panic welled in Gerald's stomach. Sam was now lying in the water too, and he yanked his sister backwards until she sat down with a splash. ‘Hurry up,' he said. ‘This is no time to be a princess.'

Gerald and Sam tugged on her arms and finally Ruby's legs slipped out. She was a sodden sandy mess.

Gerald glanced back to Mont-Saint-Michel—about four hundred metres away. ‘We're going to have to run,' he said.

They set off with a flurry of spray and silt. Gerald had seen the lifesavers running through the shallows at Bondi beach countless times, lifting their feet above the waves to escape the drag of the water. He knew he couldn't stop or the sand would grip him again. It was sprint or sink.

They covered the final hundred metres to the cliff as if all the hounds of hell were on their heels. Gerald collapsed onto a flat rock and sucked in huge breaths. Sam and Ruby fell either side of him. They were wet, covered in sand and exhausted. But they were safe.

Gerald raised himself onto his elbows and gazed back at the bay. It was full of water. From sandpit to swimming pool in a matter of minutes.

They were sitting at the end of a low promontory that jutted out a short distance from the cliff face behind them. The sandy shoreline that wrapped round that side of the island had disappeared under the rising tide. Waves pushed up either side of the rock shelf, breaking onto the base of the cliffs.

They were getting cut off.

‘We need to get higher up,' Gerald said. ‘I don't fancy getting washed back out there again.' They laced on their shoes and set out for higher ground.

Thick vegetation to the left and right forced them to scramble straight towards the cliff. Far above, the walls of the town stood over them.

‘What do you reckon that mark on the rocks is?' Sam said, pointing to a stain that ran along the escarpment ahead of them. ‘High water?'

Gerald looked up at the horizontal line above them. If that was where the tide was going to stop, they were in big trouble unless they got there first. His mind shot back to his sketch with the waves crashing against the base of the cliff. He glanced over his shoulder—rows of breakers were rolling across the bay.

The first one struck seconds later. A curl of water flattened them to the rock shelf and drenched them through.

‘We're going to get smashed,' Ruby cried over the roar of the waves. ‘We've got to get higher.'

But the cliff face ahead of them was sheer—there was no way up.

Another wave crashed on top of them. Sam slipped and fell hard. Ruby grabbed him by the wrist to stop him being pulled back into the bay.

Gerald pointed to a tangle of vines growing up one side of the cliff. He was almost too exhausted to speak. ‘Over there,' he said. ‘There might be a way up.'

He stumbled to his left and tried to make his way onto the thick matting of greenery, inching higher and higher. He reached back and hauled Ruby up next to him. Sam was only metres behind.

Like sailors in the rigging, the three of them started scaling the net of vines, desperate to escape the pounding surf.

But before they could get clear, a wave rose from the bay, far bigger than any that had come before. It crested over them, blocking the sun.

Then it crashed down, swallowing them whole.

Chapter 8

A
ll was a blur. Gerald blinked to clear his vision, but he could make no sense of what he saw. Light beams shone through a dull greyness that seemed to surround him. He ran a hand over his eyes and wiped away a smear of moss and bits of leaves.

Was that someone calling his name?

He was looking up at something that looked like his foot. And he was lying in water? Of course there was water. They'd been smashed by a huge wave.

They
.

Where were Sam and Ruby?

Gerald let his head flop to the right. Ruby was on her side, facing him, coughing up water. Gerald realised he was lying on a steep slope, his feet above his head. He struggled across to Ruby on his hands and knees.

‘You all right?'

Ruby responded with another round of liquid hacks. ‘What happened?' she asked.

Gerald took in their surroundings. They appeared to be on a narrow bank at the bottom of a deep cavern. Behind them, a large pool of black water lay like a hibernating bear. Steep walls, covered in moss, soared up on all sides. High above, to one side, there was a small opening surrounded by greenery. That was where the light was coming in.

‘The wave must have washed us through that hole,' Gerald said. ‘That green stuff must be the vines we were climbing on.'

Ruby jolted upright.

‘Where's Sam?'

Gerald shook his head. ‘He must still be up there.'

‘Or washed away,' Ruby said. ‘Oh, Sam…'

Gerald didn't know what to think. ‘He's a good swimmer,' he heard himself say. ‘He'll be right.'

Ruby yelled out for her brother. The only reply was a torrent of water gushing through the opening high above.

‘The tide must still be coming in,' Gerald said. ‘And judging by the state of these walls, it looks like this cave will fill up.'

Ruby scrambled as far up the slope as she could, then slipped on the moss and slid back to the bottom.

‘This is hopeless,' she said. ‘If the water fills this place it'll be like a washing machine. How can we swim against that?' Ruby looked to Gerald. ‘I want to find Sam,' she said.

There was a rumbling overhead and more water surged into the cave, sweeping the legs from under Gerald and Ruby and washing them into the pool at the back of the cavern.

Gerald stumbled to his feet, waist deep in black water. Ruby rose up next to him.

‘What are we going to do?' she asked.

Then there was a noise behind them: something breaking the surface of the water. Something was rising out of the dark centre of the pool.

Ruby grabbed Gerald's arm and spun around.

A body burst out of the water with a roar. Ruby's scream cut the air like the back of an axe.

It was Sam.

‘Hey you two,' he said as he bobbed in the water. ‘You'll never guess where I've just been.'

Ruby shoved Gerald aside and waded deeper into the pool towards her brother.

‘You pea brain!' she yelled. ‘You utter dolt.' She then threw her arms around his neck and held him tight.

Sam grinned at Gerald over Ruby's shoulder. ‘Sisters, eh!'

Ruby unpeeled her arms. Then she smacked Sam across the back of the head. ‘Where have you been? I thought you'd drowned.'

Sam rubbed his skull, fixing his head torch back into place.

‘You two seemed okay after we got washed down here, so I went exploring,' Sam said. He tapped the torch with a finger. ‘Good thing you got the waterproof ones, Gerald.'

The camping gear. Gerald had forgotten about his backpack. He slapped at his shoulders and was stunned to find the pack was still there. He scrabbled around inside it, pulled out a torch and strapped it to his head. Ruby was already shining her head torch beam into the gloom.

‘Exploring?' Ruby said. ‘This pool is all there is down here.'

Sam adjusted the lamp and trained the light onto his sister's face. ‘That's where you're wrong, genius.'

A rumble sounded from above and another surge of water shot though the cave opening. It hit them like a bomb, pushing them beneath the surface.

‘Right,' said Sam when they came up for air. ‘We're going to have to do a little more swimming.'

‘Swimming?' Ruby said. ‘Where?'

‘It's not far,' Sam said. ‘Trust me.'

The look on Ruby's face made it clear trusting Sam was the last thing she was going to do.

Sam led Ruby to the middle of the pool, up to her armpits. ‘Just take a big breath and follow me, okay?'

‘What if I run out of air?' Ruby said, staring horrified at the surface.

Sam thought for a second. ‘That would be a bad thing.'

Before she could give it any more thought, Sam grabbed her hand and they both disappeared beneath the water.

Gerald glanced up at the sound of another wave approaching. An avalanche of water was rushing down at him. He took a breath, and dived.

Gerald was vaguely aware of the surface above him being bombarded by the pounding waters flowing in from the bay. But his senses were focused on the shaft of torchlight that probed the darkness ahead of him. He kicked down. He could just make out the two fingers of light coming from Sam and Ruby's torches below. They were tracing the edge of a sheer rock shelf, deeper and deeper into the pool. Gerald's ears howled in protest as the pressure ground into them, squeezing like a clamp on his head.

Then he lost sight of the others.

His torch sliced into the gloom but all he could see was rock wall plunging ever deeper. There was no sign of Sam or Ruby. They'd gone.

Gerald kicked on, driving himself deeper. And then the rock shelf disappeared. All he could see was bottomless space. His lungs tightened; he was running out of air. Panic rose in his gut. What was going on? His friends had vanished. He had a head-spinning sense of disorientation. Which way was up?

Then Gerald thought to blow out a bubble. His eyes followed its smooth ascent. And his sense of place was restored. He had swum under the rock shelf. He turned his head for the surface and kicked hard. Just when he thought his lungs would collapse, he burst into the sweet salt air.

Sam and Ruby were sitting on a sandy bank at the edge of the pool. Gerald crawled out of the water and flopped beside them. They were in a vast grotto. The ceiling soared high above, lost in the stalactites and shadows.