The woman was clearly wearing contacts, but they had nothing to do with night – instead, her eyes looked rather like a lizard’s.’
‘Can I help you luvelies?’ she asked, in a broad London accent.
‘Erm, no thanks. Just browsing.’ Lana smiled shyly as they backed out. ‘Any other ideas?’
Emma shrugged. ‘It’s quite difficult, considering everyone here is very, erm…’
‘Unique?’ Lana suggested, linking arms again.
‘Oh, I just had an idea,’ Emma said. ‘I bought a locket once from somewhere. Maybe…’
‘Yeah, let’s go. Which way?’
They walked quickly again, still noting that they were the first of their classmates to figure out that they should be in the Stables shopping area.
‘Hello again,’ said a young man dressed entirely in Steampunk clothes.
‘Hi.’ Emma blushed. ‘You remember me?’
‘I remember everyone,’ he replied. ‘Looking for another locket?’
Emma nodded.
‘Yes, one with hair so pale,’ Lana quizzed.
The man frowned for a second, but it was clear he was hiding a smile.
‘It’s here, Em. It’s here somewhere.’
The man stepped back to reveal an older lady sitting in the corner, she looked up with a toothy grin and revealed black eyes. Emma gasped and clapped her hands, moving closer.
‘Wow,’ said Lana. ‘That’s amazing.’
They both stood watching the woman whose eyes looked like twinkling stars in a dark night.
‘They are the most amazing contacts I’ve ever seen,’ Emma whispered.
‘Can I buy some?’ asked Lana, temporarily forgetting why they were there.
‘I’m afraid these aren’t for sale, love,’ she said, laughing. ‘These ain’t contact lenses,’ she winked.
‘Oh, you’re a super…’ Emma nudged Lana and shook her head. Her sister stopped talking.
‘The locket,’ Emma said. ‘We need to find the locket.’
Suddenly Lana started laughing. Following her gaze, Emma chuckled too. In the woman’s lap was a large white cat, around whose neck was an unusual locket.
‘I think we found the clue,’ Emma said.
‘May I?’ she asked the woman, who was grinning.
‘You may, my love. Don’t worry, she’s a gentle one.’
Leaning forward, Emma gently stroked the cat’s back before opening the locket. Inside was a picture of the young man they’d spoken to moments before.
‘Oh,’ Emma exclaimed. Turning to him, she smiled. ‘Do you have our next clue?’
The man nodded and bowed, revealing a number of envelopes hidden in the very top of his hat.
Lana grinned and took one. ‘Why thank you, kind sir.’
‘My pleasure. Your prize,’ he said, turning away from them for a moment. When he turned back, he held out his hands and nodded to them both.
Lana and Emma each held out their hands, cringing with expectation.
But when he released his own hands, they felt a tickle before a beautiful white dove appeared in both girls’ hands. They sat for a moment before flying up and away.
Both girls squealed with delight as they watched the doves fly through the stalls and out into the daylight.
The man tipped his head and walked away.
‘That was awesome,’ Emma grinned as they opened their envelope to reveal their next clue.
‘Are we the first, then?’ Lana asked.
‘Of course. We got the prize of delight, remember.’
‘Oh yeah. Cool. What’s next then?’
A journey down under
With the warmth on your skin and
the wind on your face
Look for a place of worship
Down by the water
You’ll find your next clue
In the hands of someone’s daughter
‘What the heck does that mean? This is so hard, Em,’ Lana said, pushing her hair behind her ear.
‘We can figure it out. Right, so we need to travel somewhere. By bus?’
‘You don’t really get warm skin and wind on your face on the bus though, do you. Oh, it’s the underground, it’s the underground,’ she answered. ‘Come on, let’s go to the nearest station.’
Both of them squealed like little girls before running up out of the Stables and down the road. They passed Liam and Ava, who were looking a little lost.
‘So long, suckers,’ Lana shouted from across the road.
‘Aw, c’mon, give us a clue!’ he shouted back.
‘You’re almost in the right place,’ Emma yelled back.
He gave them the thumbs up as they continued running until they came to Camden tube station. Getting their passes out of their handbags, they went through the barriers and stood facing a large map.
‘Okay, where do we need to go?’ Lana said, more to herself then Emma.
‘Hmmm, we’re looking for a place of worship. There must be tonnes in London. St. Paul’s?’
‘No, it needs to be near the water,’ Emma replied, her finger in her mouth as she concentrated.
‘It might not be a regular church though, sis. It might be where Muslims go to pray and stuff. What are they called? Erm, mosques? Are there any mosques around?’
‘I wouldn’t know what to look for. Do you think it would really be a mosque? Surely it would be something a little easier to find, don’t you think?’
‘Yeah, I guess. Erm… I can’t see anything, can you?’
‘Oh, oh I’ve got it!’ Lana squealed as she placed her finger on the map.
‘Temple? Oh Lana you’re a genius!’
‘I know,’ she said rubbing her fingers on her coat. ‘Let’s go! I think we might win this thing.’
‘Don’t talk too soon, sis. We’ve only been at it for what, less than an hour?’
Lana laughed. ‘Yeah I know but we’regood.’
Running down the escalator, both girls enjoyed the warm air coming from below and laughed together as they sit on a bench to wait for the next train, which was due in a matter of minutes.
Emma’s mobile phone beeped.
‘Let me guess… Diarmuid, right? Looking for a clue?’
Emma shook her head. ‘No, he’s actually not far behind. They’ve just got the next clue. Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell him anything.’ She grinned as she sent him a text and put her phone back in her bag.
‘What’s Barber up to today?’
‘Same thing he’s been up to all week. Trying to get the truth out of Sthenelaus.’
‘How’s that going, by the way?’
‘Not great. The guy is so ill, he can barely talk.’
‘Weird, isn’t it?’
Lana nodded as she looked at all the people buzzing around them. ‘I’m just glad we got him. So many people can sleep easier knowing he can’t hurt them anymore.’
‘Now they just have to worry about Stan.’
‘God, I’d actually forgotten about that creep.’
Jumping up at the sound of the tube coming around the bend in the tunnel, Emma grabbed her sister’s arm so they didn’t get split up in all the commotion. The seats were pretty full, so they stood, Lana trying to avoid touching any surfaces.
Emma pulled a face at her.
‘What?’ she whispered. ‘They’re full of other people’s germs.’
‘You’re wearing gloves.’
Lana poked out her tongue, but when she noticed people watching her, she quickly put it back in and turned away, glancing at a man standing by the door at the far end of the carriage.
‘Hey, is that…?
‘Huh?’ said Emma following her gaze. ‘Who?’
But when Lana turned back, he was gone. She shook her head.
‘It’s nothing, I think I’m just imagining things,’ she shrugged and smiled.
‘This is Temple. The next station is Embankment,‘ said the recorded voice.
The cold hit them as they exited the underground, mak
ing them both breathless for a second before they headed off to find a zebra crossing to get to the riverside.
Soon, they were wandering up and down the street looking for ‘someone’s daughter’.
‘It could be anyone,’ moaned Lana, after ten minutes of drawing a blank. ‘What do we do?’
‘We need to think about this,’ Emma said, as they leaned against the wall and looked out across the Thames. They both watched the boats for a moment before their eyes landed on one that looked familiar one just metres away from where they stood.
‘Is that Declan’s boat?’ asked Emma as she grabbed Lana and pulled her along the pier.
Gingerly climbing aboard, Lana almost lost her balance as Emma hopped on with confidence. ‘Jeeze, Em, I nearly fell in the water!’
‘No you didn’t. Come on, let’s see if the clue is here. Someone’s daughter? Who could that be?’
Pushing open the door to the house boat where they’d spent their first few weeks in London the year before, both girls collapsed with laughter at the sight of a cardboard cutout of Daisy. Stuck to her hands were several envelopes.
‘That is brilliant. I wonder whose idea that was,’ Lana laughed. ‘I bet it was Beau’s.’
Rise higher and higher up in the sky
A view from above using a special eye
There you’ll find clue number three
And something to eat and a cup of tea!
‘Oh this one is way too easy,’ said Lana while Emma nodded.
‘Come on, let’s run,’ she said, pulling her sister off of the boat and heading towards the London Eye.
As they sprinted down the road, they spotted some of their classmates looking somewhat confused across the other side of the street. Laughing, the girls ignored them and continued on their way to the famous wheel.
Approaching, they spotted Declan and Aria, in animated conversation sitting on the wall beside the wheel. Both grinned at the sight of them.
‘So you made it this far.’ He smiled as Aria poured them both a drink from a large flask and handed it to them.
‘Yup!’ Emma smiled. ‘We particularly liked Daisy’s cutout.’
Declan chuckled. ‘That was Beau’s idea.’
‘We thought so. So what’s next?’ Lana asked.
‘Drink your tea, eat your sandwich and hop into a capsule. We’ll hand you your next clue when you’ve done one revolution,’ he grinned.
‘Hurry up, Em. Eat fast!’
Emma nodded and both girls munched down their food and gulped down the hot tea before jumping into the capsule.
‘It’s so slow,’ Lana moaned after a couple of minutes. ‘I wanna get going.’
‘Just enjoy it. We’re still in the lead and everyone else has got to do the same task.’
‘Yeah, I guess.’
Looking down below them, there was still no sign of the other teenagers, so Lana smiled and sat down, peering around at the view beyond.
‘It’s pretty special, isn’t it, sis?’ asked Emma.
‘Huh? What?’
‘London.’
‘Oh yeah.’
A number of tourists were wandering around their capsule, taking photos of the various landmarks that could be seen from their vantage point. A woman brushed by Emma as she stood up to get a better view of St. Paul’s Cathedral.
‘We should go there, Lana. We’ve never been before.’
‘Huh? The cathedral? Why would we go there?’
‘Because it’s beautiful,’ the woman interrupted.
Lana and Emma both looked at her and cringed at her face. She was about fifty years old, with small beady droopy eyes and a nose that was far too big. Her thin lips were stretched into a smile that made her look more like the Joker than anything else.
Lana shivered as she reached for her sister’s hand.
‘Yes, I’ve heard that it is,’ Emma replied with an attempted smile.
‘Did you know that it was the tallest building in London up until about thirty years ago?’ the woman asked, stepping closer.
Both girls shook their heads, Lana pulling Emma backwards.
‘No, we had no idea,’ Lana spoke loudly. ‘Thanks for that info,’ she said, with a fake smile, pulling them away towards the door. ‘Did you feel that?’ she asked.
Emma nodded. ‘Evil. Pure evil.’
‘We should get off.’
‘I wish we could,’ Lana agreed.
‘It’s just a few more minutes,’ Emma whispered, looking over her shoulder at the frightening woman who stood looking away from them.
Counting down the minutes until they could step off, both girls held each other’s hand tightly, waiting patiently without saying a word.
Not soon enough, they’d reached ground level.
Lana let out a sigh of relief as they hopped off and ran as quickly as they could towards Declan and Aria, who were standing chatting to a small group of their classmates.
‘Declan!’ Lana shouted.
Lifting his head, his expression changed almost immediately and he stepped forward. ‘You alright?’ he asked.
‘Yes, but it was weird,’ Emma breathed as the three of them turned to scan the crowd.
‘What, what was weird?’ asked Rupert.
‘There was an evil woman in the capsule with us.’
‘What did she do?’
‘Nothing, really.’
‘So how did you know she was evil?’ he asked.
‘We could feel it.’
‘Oh, right, okay.’
‘She was freakishly ugly, though,’ Lana said, scrunching her face up in disgust.
‘Sorry, Lana. What did you just say?’ asked Aria, who had overheard the conversation.
‘She was freakishly ugly.’
Aria’s face turned white.
‘What? What’s wrong?’
‘Can you describe her?’
‘Beady brown eyes that seemed to droop down into her cheeks, and a huge nose,’ Emma described.
‘But she had the most perfectly done hair,’ Lana added. ‘And beautifully manicured fingernails.’
‘Oh dear,’ Aria whispered. ‘It sounds like Madge.’
‘Right, this treasure hunt is officially over,’ Declan announced.
‘Oh no,’ Lana pouted. ‘It was fun.’
‘Sorry, guys, but if Madge is out there, stalking any one of you, then it’s too perilous. Until we know how dangerous this woman is, we need to get the rest of the kids together and back to Praxos ASAP.’
‘Really? But she’s just one woman? What harm can she do?’ Lana pulled a face.
Declan turned to face Lana and raised his eyebrows. ‘She’s a Skull, kiddo. And, like I said, we don’t know just how dangerous she is. And we don’t know who she’s working with, either. I know you’re all keen to help and we appreciate that, but we mustn’t forget that you are all just sixteen years old. Let’s re-group, find her, and then maybe we can continue the treasure hunt afterwards, got it?’
‘Yeah, Declan. We got it,’ Lana groaned.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Climbing onto the private bus that had been organised to take them safely back to Praxos, Lana took one last look around to see if she could spot Madge Sophokles, but the woman seemed to have vanished.
‘How did she know that we’d be on the London Eye?’ Emma asked, as Diarmuid slung his arm over her shoulder and shrugged.
‘You know, earlier I thought I saw Stan,’ Lana leaned forward and whispered to Emma.
‘What?’ she cried. ‘Why didn’t you say anything?’
Lana put her fingers to her lips and grimaced. ‘I thought it was just my imagination.’
‘You’ve got to tell Declan.’
‘He already knows.’
‘Huh?’
Looking towards the front of the bus, Declan was staring at her, his eyebrows raised as he walked towards them.
‘See?’
‘Yep,’ Emma replied.
‘You should have told me the mom
ent you thought you saw him.’
‘I didn’t think it was real, Declan. Sorry.’
‘If you see anything else remotely suspicious, tell me, okay?’
Lana nodded and slid down in the seat as Declan turned around and returned to the front.
A couple of minutes into their journey, Lana yelled at the top of her voice, ‘Declan, I see him, I see him.’
Sure enough, Stan Sophokles was standing on the other side of the road with a grin on his face.
‘Keep driving,’ Declan instructed.
‘What?’ Lana squealed. ‘We should go and get him.’
Shaking his head, Declan stood staring back at him, deep in concentration.
‘What’s he doing?’ whispered Emma.
‘I think he’s trying to read his mind,’ Diarmuid replied.
But then another bus passed between them and when it had gone, so had Stan.
Declan cursed under his breath and said something to the driver, who nodded. The bus began to slow and the front door opened. Without stopping, Declan jumped off and ran back towards where Stan had been.
‘No,’ shouted Lana. ‘We can help.’
But the door closed and the bus sped up.
Aria stood and walked towards them. ‘Don’t worry, Declan will be fine.’
‘But why can’t we go too?’ Lana complained.
Aria shook her head. ‘He gave explicit instructions that you are all returned to the academy as quickly as possible. Let the adults deal with this.’
When Aria walked back to her seat, Lana turned towards Diarmuid and Emma with her mouth open. ‘Let the adults deal with this? Who does she think she is? We’re not children. Jeeze.’
‘She’s also not English, Lana. She probably didn’t mean it like that.’
Lana raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms, sitting back in her seat. ‘Yeah, whatever.’
oOo
Declan arrived back just a few minutes after they did and he didn’t look happy. Looking at him expectantly, he shook his head and headed straight to Eleanor’s office.
‘What should we do?’ asked Emma before he disappeared out of sight.
‘Erm, just go chill out in the white room for a bit,’ he yelled.
The class did as they were told, taking the elevator down to the main Praxos hall before heading towards their so-called chill out room, where large white beanbags were scattered around the carpeted floor.