The Time Hunters (Book 1 of the acclaimed series for children of all ages) (14 page)

Uncle Percy’s expression changed. For a moment, even
Becky forgot her fear and stared at Joe with disbelief.
The
Minotaur?

‘Timaeus, Perticus - bind him,’ Helladius bellowed.
‘Bind them all.
 
The King will appreciate
our spoils, and the Minotaur will welcome fresh meat.’

A few soldiers leapt from their horses, coils of rope
in their hands. They approached the Argonauts who offered themselves freely.
Becky watched horrified as a guard tied Uncle Percy’s wrists behind his back. Then
Timaeus and Perticus bound a dazed Will.

Becky froze as a thickset guard approached her and
Joe. He smirked cruelly and lifted them on to his horse.

‘My cane,’ Uncle Percy said to Helladius. ‘I need my
cane...’

Helladius picked up the staff. In one swift
movement, the cane shattered across his knee. ‘You have no cane.’ Then he threw
himself onto his warhorse. ‘The King will be pleased,’ he shouted, fat globs of
saliva showering his horse’s ears. ‘TO KNOSSOS…’

Chapter 20

Dungeons
and Dragoons

A golden sun inched over the mountains as the party
marched into the mouth of Andrana’s Valley. Becky watched as Uncle Percy
trudged on. He looked surprisingly at peace, content even. She couldn’t
understand it. What was he thinking? It almost looked as if their capture had
been a part of some master plan. But he couldn’t have planned it. Could he?

‘What are we going to do?’ Joe asked Becky. ‘Did you
hear that nutter mention the Minotaur? It’s real. I know it is.’

Becky said nothing.
 
She didn’t know what to think anymore.

‘I’m worried,’ Joe said quietly.

‘Well don’t be,’ Becky replied. ‘Uncle Percy isn’t
worried, so I don’t think we should.’

‘Yeah, but he’s deranged.’ He looked at his uncle
who had begun to chunter happily to himself. ‘He’ll be more bothered about
spotting a pink Blubber Frog than us being captured by a hairy
psychopath
. Anyway, what’s the Omega
Effect?’

‘What?’

‘The Omega Effect.
I heard Uncle Percy mention it. What is it?’

‘Oh, nothing.’

‘Well it must be something. And how come I don’t
know about it?’

‘He trusts me more than you,’ Becky said. ‘He thinks
you’ve got a big gob.’

‘No, he doesn’t.’

‘Okay, he doesn’t, but I do. Now, shut up!’

They had been marching for more than an hour when
they came to the Grey Mountains. Although it was perhaps a mile to their left,
Becky could see Hypatia Point clearly. As she looked for the olive grove, she
found herself wondering - would the traveller be there, waiting for Jason to
deliver her safely? Did he know the assassination attempt failed?
Was he watching them right now?

The temperature rose and the Argonauts were wilting
as the party left Andrana’s Valley and entered a desert of green scrub and fine
sand. Then Becky saw something that left her breathless. In the distance,
rising into the sky like a mirage, stood a colossal pearl-white structure:
Knossos.

As they drew closer, Becky saw a stream of ox-drawn
carts being steered through an archway, standing atop of which was a giant
stone Bull’s head; its painted yellow eyes appeared to follow them as they
approached the towering city walls. Once through the arch, Becky felt a knot form
in her stomach. They were in a vast courtyard full to bursting with hundreds of
people, gathered for an outdoor market. She watched an old, craggy-faced woman
in a ragged smock chase a runaway chicken that squawked loudly in a fruitless
bid for freedom. Peering over at Helladius, whose red, pitiless face was sopping
with sweat, she thought the chicken stood a better chance of getting it than
they did.

Then something caught her eye:
a face that didn’t fit
. A slender man
wearing a dark cloak with an oddly fair complexion studied them intently. She
looked over to see if Uncle Percy had seen him, but he was too busy saying
‘Good Morning’ to the bemused onlookers to notice anything. By the time she
looked back, the man had gone, consumed by the jostling crowd.

*

They passed through a smaller archway into a quiet
square. Helladius dismounted and turned to the guard on his right.
‘Eustathious, take this scum to the dungeons. I will meet with the King and
enquire as to his wishes.’

Helladius stood before them, his legs wide apart as
he drew a wheezy breath that caused his massive stomach to rise above his belt.
‘Do not get accustomed to the comfort of your cell. I am hopeful to see you
dead before nightfall.’
 
He disappeared
into a five-tiered building.

Becky assumed they were at the Palace, for it was,
without question, the most imposing structure within the city walls.

Eustathious leapt from his horse. ‘PRISONERS, FOLLOW
ME!’ He marched to a smaller building to the rear of the courtyard.

They were guided through the dungeon entrance, down
a series of steps, into a tunnel lit by flickering torches. Muffled laughter
could be heard from the market above.

Becky turned to see the Argonauts, their heads
bowed, plod down the steps. She heard Theseus mumbling about how he should have
been in charge in the first place and if Hercules didn’t stop whining he would
punch him in the face. As they entered the cells, she saw a short,
grubby-looking man, a few strands of wiry hair poking out of his bald head, his
chest damp with grime and sweat. He was sitting on a stone slab, a plump finger
inserted up his nose.

Even Eustathious appeared to think the gaoler was
revolting and avoided eye contact when speaking to him. ‘Prisoners, Galdeus.’

The gaoler pulled his finger from his nostril and
wiped it on his shoulder. Then he stood up, his back hunched and burped.

‘Ooh, lovely fresh prisoners,’ Galdeus wheezed,
unhooking a set of wooden keys from his belt. ‘They look tasty. The Minotaur
will feast well.’ He threw them a toothless smile, and nodded at Becky.
‘Especially on your pretty bones …’

Becky turned away.
What a scumbag
.

Galdeus turned towards a rear door and hobbled into
an antechamber. ‘Follow me.’

They found themselves in an airless room that
contained a wide iron-barred grille that framed the entrance to a narrow cell.
With a grunt, Galdeus slid it open and gestured for them to enter, cutting them
free as they passed.

‘Most kind,’ Uncle Percy said, twisting his freed
wrists. ‘Galdeus, about this Minotaur, it wouldn’t happen to live in a tunnel
round here, would it?’

‘It dwells in the Maze of Kyros, far beneath the
ground.’ Galdeus smirked. ‘Only Daedalus’ Gate, at the Maze’s mouth, prevents
the beast from rising and devouring us all. You will not be so lucky.’

‘I’m sure,’ Uncle Percy said. ‘How do we get to the
gate?’

Galdeus gave a cruel laugh. ‘You will see the gate
soon enough. The Minotaur is owed a feed, and the King dare not disappoint.
There is no doubt … Death is coming for you.’

‘Terrific,’ Uncle Percy said brightly. ‘We’ve all
got to go sometime.’

‘Mock all you will, stranger.’ He slammed the grill
shut. ‘Will you jest when the beast has the girl’s head between its teeth?’ He
locked the padlock, broke wind loudly and left the room.

‘Charming fellow…’ Uncle Percy said.

As a tense stillness cloaked the cell, the gravity
of the situation occurred to Becky. Twenty-four hours ago, she would have
dismissed the idea of an actual Minotaur as nonsense, but after the Harpies she
wasn’t sure of anything. And what if they didn’t survive? Her mum wouldn’t even
have an explanation as to where they were, or what had happened.

For the next ten minutes no one said a word. Will
paced round the cell like a caged animal; Becky and Joe sat making circles with
their toes on the floor.

Uncle Percy, on the other hand, wore a bemused smile
as if it was all an amusing game. Upon noticing Joe’s anxious expression, he
turned and said, ‘Don’t worry, Joe. I’ve been in considerably worse scrapes
than this and always managed to get out of them in one piece.’

‘Oh yeah, like what?’
Becky snapped. Sometimes her uncle’s constant optimism was really quite
annoying.

Uncle Percy paused for a moment. ‘Let me see - well,
many years ago, Malcolm, Bernard and I, celebrated our graduation by going on a
little jaunt to 1686 to visit King James II court. Malcolm always nursed an
ambition to be a Royal Dragoon guard, you see.’ He smiled fondly. ‘Anyway, our
costumes were perfect, our boots polished, our muskets gleaming. We thought we
really looked the part, and, of course, we were young and convinced we wouldn’t
be caught.’

‘What happened?’ Joe asked.

‘Caught within ten minutes,’ Uncle Percy chuckled.
‘By a rather grumpy Captain named Edward Blakely. Thinking we were spies for
William of Orange, he imprisoned us as traitors. Anyway, we contacted the
Trackers
and they rescued us that
very afternoon.’

‘Trackers?’
Becky said, puzzled. ‘What are Trackers?’

‘Oh, they’re an invaluable part of GITT operations.
A rescue service for time travellers.
If, on a registered
trip, a traveller finds himself or herself in trouble then they contact GITT
headquarters with their
pagidizor,
and a team of Trackers is dispatched to give
assistance.’

‘What’s a pagidizor?’ Becky asked.

‘Well, it’s nothing spectacular to look at, rather
like a calculator,’ Uncle Percy said. ‘But, in fact, it’s a most ingenious
piece of kit. When pressed, the pagidizor engages a series of temporal waves
that stimulates sequential displacement and emits what we call a spatial
flare.’

‘Uh?’
Becky grunted.

‘Basically,’ Uncle Percy said, ‘it sends a distress
signal to our time, so the Trackers can come and get you. It’s a wonderful
gadget, really.’

‘Then use your pagidiwotsit and get us out of here.’

‘I can’t,’ Uncle Percy said simply. ‘It’s in Bertha.
Besides, the trip isn’t registered so they wouldn’t know when to come looking
for us even if I did use it.’ He smiled weakly. Sensing her despair, he
injected enthusiasm into his voice. ‘But anyway, we’re not ready to go back
yet, are we? We’ve still got a legendary relic to find.’

‘We don’t particularly want to be eaten by a dirty
great monster, though,’ Becky added sullenly.

‘It won’t come to that, I promise. Besides, we need
to get into that Maze, no matter what’s in there. Unless I’m very much
mistaken, the Maze is Arthur Evans’
Labyrinth
.’
Uncle Percy whispered, ‘How else will we find out more about the Theseus Disc?
Furthermore, the Fleece might even be in there.’

Becky huffed.
‘Along with a dirty
great monster.’

‘Well, we don’t know that for sure, do we?’

‘Everyone around here seems pretty convinced.’

‘Ah, don’t worry,’ Uncle Percy said. ‘To be honest,
I don’t think that the Minotaur exists for one second, history is full of
mythical beasts that never existed.’

‘Like Harpies,’ Becky said.

 
Uncle Percy’s
face dropped.
‘Fair point.
Anyway, if the Minotaur
does exist I have come very well equipped.’ He patted his chest mysteriously.
‘You’ll just have to trust me when I say - ’

The dungeon door opened. ‘Well, well, Percy Halifax.
It looks as though you’ve landed yourself in a right old pickle, doesn’t it?’

Even in the half-light, Becky could see Uncle
Percy’s face had drained of colour as though he’d seen a ghost.

And in a sense he had.

Chapter 21

A
Young Old Friend

The man stepped out of the shadows.

‘Bernard?’ Uncle Percy said in little more than a
whisper. ‘Bernard Preston?’

‘The very same,’ the man said. ‘Hello, my friend.’

Becky recognised the name. Bernard Preston, the
traveller who met with John Aubrey and discovered the legend of Stonehenge.
The traveller that was searching for the Golden Fleece.
The traveller who died at Bowen
Hall just over a month ago.

But as the torch opposite flickered on Preston’s
face, Becky gave an involuntary gasp.
This
wasn’t possible
. Preston studied at Oxford University with Uncle Percy,
they would be a similar age, but this was a young man.

‘It’s happened, hasn’t it?’ Preston said, astonished.
‘Lockets Syndrome, I mean. I never thought I’d see it.’

‘I think it has.’ Uncle Percy stood silently. ‘And
I’ve never seen it before either.’

Becky stared at Joe.
Lockets
Syndrome?

‘You’re from my future aren’t you?’ Preston
whispered. ‘Well, obviously you are. I only saw you last week and you were
twenty six, same age as me.’

‘I grew old.’

‘So
when
are you from?’ Preston asked.

‘Let’s just say I
am
from your future, shall we, Bernard? The details are
unimportant.’

The Argonauts looked at each other, bewildered.
Becky doubted she could explain even if she tried.

‘Wow!’
 
Bernard clapped his hands with delight. ‘It’s funny, you know. I was
only saying to Emerson yesterday - what would we do if genuine Lockets Syndrome
happened to us? And you know what a miserable beggar he can be … he just gave
me a dismissive look as if to say it was impossible. But it’s happened. It’s
really happened...’

‘Yes, it has,’ Uncle Percy replied. ‘What are you
doing here, Bernard?’

‘Oh, you know me. I’ve always been fascinated by
Ancient Greece. I come to Knossos quite often, particularly on Saturdays, like
today. It’s market day, in case you hadn’t guessed.’

‘I thought so.’

Preston smiled.
‘So there I was,
standing at my favourite stall, and who comes though the gate but that buffoon,
Helladius, and my good friend, albeit slightly older, Percy Halifax.
I
couldn’t believe my eyes.’

‘I bet you couldn’t,’ Uncle Percy said.

‘Anyway, I just bribed Galdeus with a packet of
cheese and onion crisps and he let me right in.’ Preston clapped his hands
again. ‘It’s remarkable. Only last week, I made a decision to stay away from
this timeline for a while, but for some reason, thought I’d visit Knossos one
last time, and look what’s happened: a genuine case of Locket’s Syndrome.
Anyway, that’s enough about me. What’re you doing here?’

Uncle Percy paused. ‘We’re just having a family day
trip. This is Becky and Joe, my niece and nephew. I just thought I’d show them
what Crete was really like. You know, help them with their schoolwork and all
that.’

‘Real history, eh kids?’ Preston waved at Becky and
Joe. ‘I wish I’d had a time traveller for an uncle when I was a nipper. It
beats reading stuffy old books, eh?’

Becky and Joe smiled politely, although neither of
them could think of anything to say.

‘So how come you’ve landed yourself in jail?’

‘Just a touch of rotten luck,’ Uncle Percy said.

‘Do you want me to bust you out?’ Preston asked
eagerly. ‘A jailbreak would be so exciting. I can pop back to my time and get a
couple of squid grenades from Charlie Millport. I wouldn’t even need to inform
headquarters, he owes me a favour. I’ll have you out of here in no time at
all.’

Becky’s heart leapt.
A jailbreak
.
However, a firm
shake of Uncle Percy’s head dashed the idea.

‘No, thank you,’ Uncle Percy said. ‘We’re going to
see the King.’

‘Are you sure?’ Bernard said. ‘I could always round
up a couple of other Otters to help. I know Steffers would definitely do it,
and Malcolm, he’s always up for a rumble. Not too sure about Emerson, he
doesn’t seem to like you much and Ricardo is probably swanking around as a
sixteenth century conquistador somewhere, but I could try -’
 

‘No,’ Uncle Percy asserted. ‘Actually, would you do
me a favour? In fact, it’s more than a
favour,
it’s a
deeply felt appeal.’

‘Anything.’

Uncle Percy took a heavy breath. ‘You must not tell
a soul about our meeting. Not anyone. Do you understand?’ There was sadness in
his voice. ‘I know the fact that you’ve encountered Lockets Syndrome must be
desperately exciting, but, please, I beg of you, you cannot tell anyone.’

Preston was clearly disappointed. ‘But - but I’m
sure that the younger
you
would
love to hear that you’re still travelling at your age. Surely -’

Uncle Percy’s expression turned grave.
‘
Especially
not the
younger me.
 
That would be very
bad. Please, Bernard, you must respect my wishes on this. Besides, I
know
you do as I ask, and I thank you
for it.’

‘How do you know?’ Preston asked.

‘Because if you had told me, I would have known that
we were to meet here, in this very dungeon, for twenty odd years, and, as I’m
as surprised by this as you are, then you can’t have mentioned it.’

Bernard Preston laughed heartily. ‘That is a very
good point, old chap. Well, if you’re sure, then we’ll make this
our
little secret.’

‘Thank you, Bernard,’ Uncle Percy said. ‘It’s more
important to me than I could ever begin to explain.’

A mischievous twinkle appeared in Bernard Preston’s
eyes. ‘Well, if I’m to do that for you, then perhaps you should do something
for me.’

Uncle Percy sighed.

‘How do I turn out?’ Preston asked. ‘Do I get
married? Do we stay friends? What happens to me?’

Uncle Percy’s mouth creased into a wide smile, careful
not to display a trace of sadness.
 
‘You
turn out just fine, Bernard. In fact, you prove yourself to be one of the
noblest men to have ever walked the earth. We are, and always remain, the best
of friends. And that is all I’m prepared to say on the matter. It’s never good
to know too much about one’s future.’

Bernard Preston exhaled. ‘You’re right. I don’t want
to know any more. That’s the beauty of the future. Let it unfold as it may.
But, I do thank you for those words.’

Becky saw Uncle Percy’s bottom lip tremble slightly.

‘That’s perfectly all right, my dear friend,’ Uncle
Percy said quietly.

‘Now are you sure you don’t want me to get you out
of here?’

‘No. We’ll be fine. Now you - you go get back to
your time safely.’ He smiled. ‘I know for certain that you will.’

Bernard Preston extended his open hand through the
iron bars and the two men shook. ‘Goodbye, my friend.’

‘Goodbye, Bernard.’

Then Preston turned to Becky and Joe and grinned.
‘See you in twenty something years, kids. I’ll know you before you ever know
me. Good luck, everyone.’ After giving a final bow, Bernard Preston left the
dungeon.
 

When Uncle Percy arched round he was shaking like a
leaf. He staggered to the far corner of the cell and slumped to the floor, his
head cradled in his hands.

Becky wanted to reach out to him, to help. But what
could she do? She couldn’t begin to understand the grief he must be feeling.
After all, it had only been a matter of weeks since Uncle Percy had watched
that young man die in his arms.