~~~

Despite Wu Dog Yan’s assurances, they didn’t leave after half an hour. In fact, it was almost an hour of stroking everything in the main hall before Zade threw his paws up in the air and said, ‘really, there’s nothing here, can we go now?’

‘Don’t be so negative,’ said Luco, stroking the edges of the coal bucket next to the fireplace. ‘We’re close, I can feel it.’

‘I think Zade is right,’ said Cha Cha.

‘Me too,’ added Wu Dog Yan, who put the book that she’d just pulled out back onto the mantelpiece.

‘We can’t give up, we’re too close…’

‘You keep saying that, but we haven’t found anything,’ said Cha Cha.

‘And we’ve checked everything.’

‘Nuut, nuut…we haven’t checked everything.’

‘Are you serious? We’ve gone over this fireplace, these walls, everything about fifty times. If there is a switch, it’s clearly too well hidden for just anyone to find.’

‘Nuut, we can’t leave…’

Wu Dog Yan looked at Cha Cha and Zade and gestured for them to head back to the door they’d come in from.

‘Hey, I saw that…’ said Luco. ‘Don’t give them secret gestures to leave, we’re staying, we’re staying until we find the switch and then we’re getting Dog Lee and…’

Luco continued talking for another minute then Wu Dog Yan talked back and before they could stop it they were paw deep in an argument. Cha Cha tried to intervene and calm them down, especially as Wu Dog Yan was holding two swords, but Luco was too riled up to back down.

Even though he was big enough to force them to stop, Zade took a few steps back and bumped into the pillar that had been blocking the eye hole in the cave wall. It gave him a slight shock, leading him to turn around and check out what the pointy bits were. Ah, that was creepy. Around the pillar were little sculpted bits of stone, made to look like dog claws. One of them had a crack at its base and when Zade reached out to touch it, to see if it would break off, there was a clicking noise. The claw didn’t break off, it folded inwards, as if it had been made that way, like it was some kind of…

‘Waa, look…’

‘The wall next to the fireplace, it’s open…’

‘How, what…’

Zade glanced over and saw that the wall next to the fireplace was indeed open. Part of him felt like boasting about his discovery, whereas another part of him felt annoyed that he’d just stopped them all from going home. Now they’d have to go down the secret passage and who knew what was at the end of this one?

‘How did that happen?’ asked Cha Cha, confused.

‘It was us arguing, it must’ve been,’ said Luco, already rushing over to the new secret passage.

‘I don’t think so,’ said Wu Dog Yan, noticing Zade next to the pillar.

‘Loud noises activate the switch. What else could it have been?’

Wu Dog Yan gestured towards Zade and Luco followed, spotting the pillar and the ring of claws. ‘You mean it was the pillar?’

‘Zade?’

‘I just touched the claw…’

‘It was the pillar all this time, not the fireplace…’

‘I guess.’

‘Tekikik morka![1] I feel like a fool…’ said Luco.

‘We were all fools,’ admitted Wu Dog Yan.

‘Though it is kind of understandable to focus on the fireplace,’ corrected Luco, patting the wall next to him. ‘I mean, it wasn’t that stupid. And we would’ve checked the pillar again eventually. Probably. Who puts a switch on a pillar anyway? It doesn’t make sense. Anyone could lean against that accidentally. Who would design it like that? Not a smart dog, that’s for sure. In fact, they’re the stupid ones, not me.’

Wu Dog Yan laughed, making Zade and Cha Cha laugh too.

‘What?’ asked Luco, oblivious.

‘You could start a war with Shellya and still blame the turtles.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘It’s a dog proverb,’ said Cha Cha. ‘It means you never take responsibility for your own mistakes.’

‘Okay, first, that’s a lie, I always take responsibility. If I ever make a mistake. And two, what’s that got to do with Shellya?’

‘Never mind.’

‘What, because they’re passive and relaxed, you think they’d never start a war?’

Wu Dog Yan walked over, grabbed Luco by the sleeve and dragged him into the secret passage. Zade and Cha Cha followed, something they were getting quite good at.

Luco complained a little more, saying that Shellya still had a government, still had a right wing, which meant they were more than capable of being aggressive, but he soon shut up when the light in the passage faded out.

‘Waa, it’s pitch black…’

‘Phone light, quickly.’

Wu Dog Yan pulled out her phone and flicked on the torch light, but it didn’t do much good. The others took out their phones and added to it, but all they could really see was each other’s faces.

‘How is it so weak?’ asked Luco, shaking his phone.

‘Nuut kaata.’

‘Everyone keep whispering,’ said Wu Dog Yan, ‘make sure none of us get lost.’

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

‘Where did all the candles go?’ asked Zade.

‘Maybe they ran out,’ answered Cha Cha.

‘Maybe no one comes down here this late…’ suggested Wu Dog Yan.

Luco folded his arms like a politician, which was a bit pointless as no one could see anything, not even each other’s eyes. ‘Nuut, nuut, nuut, the figure came down here before…an hour ago, two hours ago…’

‘More like two and half,’ said Wu Dog Yan, letting out a long, tired breath to go with it.

‘Well, he did okay without any light.’

‘Maybe he had his own candle.’

‘Nuut, I didn’t see him carrying one,’ said Luco.

‘Or a more powerful phone light?’

‘Or a lighthouse beacon?’ added Cha Cha.

‘Whatever he had, he might still be down here, so keep an eye out.’

‘We can’t see our own feet,’ said Zade.

‘Okay then keep your ears open. No talking for a while.’

Luco coughed. ‘You just told us to keep talking…’

‘Whisper…’

‘That’s still talking…’

‘And I changed my mind. Shh.’

‘But I don’t…’

‘Shh.’

‘…even talk that loud, it’s…fine. I don’t care. No talking. But if we get lost, I’m blaming you.’

The four heroes shut their lips and kept walking, using their paws to feel along the side of the passage wall and the light from their phones to check the ground they were walking on [they had to bend down low to confirm that there was ground, it was like the whole passage was designed to function as a black hole, absorbing light and trapping it, probably shouldn’t have put this in brackets, it’s quite long]. After about ten minutes of very slow, very cautious walking, they paused, seeing a source of purple light up ahead.

‘Is that a light bulb?’

‘Hard to tell.’

‘It’s purple…’

‘Let’s keep going.’

They continued walking, the passage getting lighter and lighter as they got closer to the purple light source. Soon, they were standing right next to it.

‘That’s odd,’ said Wu Dog Yan.

‘Very odd,’ added Cha Cha.

On both sides of the passage walls were lines of purple rock, each line glowing in the dark. It didn’t look like anyone had built these lights, the rock lines were too wild, too uneven, as if some crazy dog had escaped down here and scratched the walls with purple claws. Or scratched so hard that the rock surface had cracked and the flesh behind it was purple. Or just used a neon purple highlighter pen.

‘Well, at least we can see now…’

‘True.’

‘And I think I can hear something too…the sea maybe…’

‘Ka, I can hear it too.’

‘Sounds like waves…’

‘Wait…’

Wu Dog Yan raised a paw and everyone stopped talking, except Luco who quickly added that they were probably walking down to a huge cave, maybe one of the caves in the paintings they’d walked past on the staircase before.

‘I hear voices…’

‘Me too.’

‘Where?’ asked Luco.

‘Up ahead.’

‘I can’t hear anything.’

‘Your ears aren’t as sharp as ours.’ Wu Dog Yan raised her paw again, moving forward a few steps. ‘There are animals down there, more than one. Come on.’

‘We’re really going down there?’ asked Zade.

‘Just to look.’

Zade frowned.

Wu Dog Yan patted him on the shoulder. ‘If they’ve got guns, or arrows, and there’s more of them than there are of us then we run back up here and out to the graveyard. Acceptable?’

‘If they’ve got my Satfu, I don’t care how many there are…’

‘Luco…’ said Cha Cha.

‘I’ll take them all down.’

‘This is not a Brude Furhide drama, you can’t beat them all by yourself.’

‘You couldn’t even beat one,’ added Zade.

‘Brude what? Shut up, I’m not running from anyone…that’s what my Satfu taught me. Never back down, not when you’re in the right.’

Wu Dog Yan put a paw over Luco’s mouth and whispered for him to shut up.

They waited to see if the voices stopped, possibly having heard Luco’s rantings, but they continued at the same speed and frequency.

Wu Dog Yan looked Luco in the eyes and then removed her paw from his mouth. ‘Okay, we move forward, have a look, that’s all. No hero moves, okay?’

She said the last line looking at Luco, but he just shrugged and said, ‘I know how to be patient.’

‘Good.’

They followed the purple lines on the cave walls, winding left a little bit, then right a little bit, and then straight a little bit, until they found themselves standing in a large space that looked kind of like a meeting room. There was a table in the middle and a hole in the rock face that looked like an open-air window. To the left-hand side were some steps leading down somewhere, probably to the cave below. Wu Dog Yan went close to the window hole and peered over the side. Just as she’d guessed earlier, there was water below, and sharp rocks in the distance.

‘Who would put a table in a cave?’ asked Zade, scratching the side of his leg.

‘Shhh…’ said Wu Dog Yan, turning back with a finger against her lips.

Zade stopped scratching.

The voices they’d been hearing from the cave tunnel got louder. It seemed to be two animals arguing about something.

Wu Dog Yan climbed over the rock a bit more and looked directly below. Standing next to a small rowing boat was a cat and the figure in a dark cloak they’d seen earlier. Actually, the figure in black had one foot in the boat and…was that a dog? Wu Dog Yan focused on the lump placed in the boat and, as soon as she realised what it was, the lump turned around and made a grab for the figure in black’s leg. There was no real strength to it though, and the lump got a kick to the head for his trouble.

‘Dog Hood…’ said Luco, managing to keep his voice down to a whisper.

‘Is he okay?’ asked Cha Cha, watching Dog Hood’s head droop and slump onto the side of the boat.

‘He seems to be drugged…’ said Wu Dog Yan, trying to get a better look at the figure in black.

‘It’s a trick,’ said Luco, pointing not at all covertly at the cat below. ‘That's Lo Cat Gah’s assistant...Lin something...the one we saw talking to Dog Hood at the Sha Lau.’

‘That’s him?’ asked Cha Cha, squinting.

‘Ka, look at his eyes. Same witch face. And he's here, which means he’s working with Dog Hood...and this is all some big, weird trick.’

‘I don’t think so,’ said Wu Dog Yan, tilting her head. ‘Dog Hood looks in really bad shape.’

‘He’s faking…’

‘Why?’

‘Nuut kaata.’

‘I’m confused,’ said Zade, face hidden at the side of the cave window. ‘If Dog Hood’s been drugged then who’s the dog in black?’

‘We don’t know for sure it’s a dog…’

‘Luco's right, it could be a cat,’ said Cha Cha.

‘Definitely could be a cat. And the two of them turned on Dog Hood, that’s why he’s drugged. Ka, that’s it, it makes all kinds of sense.’

Zade looked at Wu Dog Yan for her perspective, but she didn’t say anything. Just stared down at the scene, squinting a lot. Meanwhile, the conversation below grew louder.

‘Why are we having the same conversation again and again?’ asked the figure in black, his voice strangely deep and gravelly.

‘Don’t dodge,' bit back Lin Gik, putting one foot back and bringing up his left paw. 'Either I get a look at that book or I tell the police everything.’

‘This book is not for you.’

‘You still won’t show me?’

‘If your paws touched it, it would be unclean.’

Lin Gik breathed out loud, curling his left claw. ‘That’s your final answer?’

‘And you wouldn’t understand any of it.’

‘That’s a nuut?’

‘I’ll let you go without injury, as promised.’

The line was so casual that it caused Lin Gik to drop the martial arts pose and stand up straight, his whole manner shifting into extreme confidence mode. ‘Your threats are water, dog. I've trained with Lo Cat Gah, learned all his secrets. Do not delude yourself into thinking you've seen everything. Now, the book, show it to me.’

‘Nuut.’

Lin Gik flinched, his mask slipping a bit. 'The first chapter.’

‘Nuut.’

‘The blurb on the back cover.’

‘Never.’

‘Fine. Then I go to the police.’

Cha Cha nudged Wu Dog Yan in the hip and asked her what the plan was.

‘Nuut kaata…’ She scanned the rest of the cave again, squinting at a few holes in the walls. ‘Seems like it’s just the three of them down there.’

‘Can you see who the figure in black is yet?’

‘Nuut, but…’

‘He has no face?’

‘Ka, there’s a face, but he’s hiding it.’

‘All the time?’

‘There is something familiar about the voice though…’

‘Sounds like another cat,’ said Luco, baring tiny but quite sharp teeth.

Cha Cha looked at Zade and shrugged. ‘Maybe we should go back to the castle and call the police?’

‘Works for me.'

‘Luco?’

No answer.

Cha Cha turned right and looked down at the space Luco had been standing in a minute earlier. The rocks were empty. The area was quiet. She looked towards the top of the steps and didn’t see him there either, which meant he was either heading back to the castle or…

She looked into the cave, at the steps leading out of their little room and down to the water. About halfway down was Luco, jumping two steps at a time even though each landing could’ve broken his ankles.

‘Nuut, Luco…’ Cha Cha whisper-shouted [not a contradiction].

Zade instinctively reached out a paw and gagged her, then looked at Wu Dog Yan. She was already on her feet, sword in paw, heading towards the steps.

‘Oh nuut, nuut, nuut…’ he muttered.

~~~

----------------------------------------

[1] A bad word in the hamster language. Untranslatable.