Читать книгу The Gold Thief - Justin Fisher, Justin Fisher - Страница 14

rchie and Gummy’s faces were bright red and covered in sweat.

“N-N-Ned,” started Archie. Ned’s position was now officially unmanageable. Gummy looked as though he was about to go into cardiac arrest, and though they couldn’t see it, there was a slack-jawed killing machine at the top of Ned’s stairs – which for some reason had decided to take a break.

“What are you two doing here?!” Ned squealed.

“Cycled over as quick as we could. Y-you were being so weird – we were worried about you, and your mouse, Ned! Its eyes lit up like bulbs!” managed Archie between gulps of air.

His two friends may well have had his best interests at heart, but they’d now seriously endangered themselves – and no doubt Ned too.

“What? GET OUT OF HERE!”

But Archie had not finished.

“There’s something else, Ned – the nit inspector, he’s coming down the street.”

“Hra, hra, hra,” came the gravelly laugh of the bargeist.

“So that’s your game!” Ned sneered back. The hound wasn’t there to hurt him – he was just delaying things till his master returned.

Gummy had finally come to his senses and was beginning to breathe normally again. “What was that sound, and why are you talking to the stairs?”

“It’s nothing and you two have to go.”

But before Gummy could answer, they were cut off by a knock on the door.

“Hello? Hello – Ned? Do open up, will you, I would so like to meet you,” came an oily voice through the letterbox. “I know you’re in there – I can smell you.”

“Barking dogs – that’s him!” cried Archie. “First you go all Gandalf on us and now this!”

Barking dogs indeed, thought Ned, as the bargeist started pacing down the stairs. And with every step the creature continued to grow. Ned had to make a break for it, but how? If he ran, on his own, the nit inspector might hurt his friends. Or he could allow himself to be captured … No, that wasn’t an option. If his parents had been taken, he needed to be free, so he could try to get them back.

“You shouldn’t have come here,” he whispered to his friends, eyes flitting between door and stairs.

“We had to. You left your bag and you never go anywhere without it. Besides, if we hadn’t, we wouldn’t have seen the inspector. Is he what all this is about? Are you OK, Ned? Where are your mum and dad?”

But Ned wasn’t listening.

“My bag? Please tell me you’ve got it!”

“There’s hardly anything in it,” said Archie, pulling Ned’s small messenger bag from his shoulder and handing it to his friend.

“Archie Hinks – I could kiss you!”

“Just you try it! See, Gummy – he’s not himself, it’s the magic talking.”

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! went the door.

“Ne-eeeed,” cooed the inspector. “Come on, we both know I’ll find a way in, Ned, I always find a way in. Besides – in a minute or two you and your little friends will most certainly want a way out.”

To push home his point, the bargeist bared its teeth.

“Er … Ned?” said Archie. “What’s going on?”

“What have you done with them?!” shouted Ned, ignoring his friend.

“Mummy and Daddy? Oh, don’t worry, they’re back in my little hidey-hole. They’re a tricky pair, aren’t they, put up quite a fight once they came round. But I knew my little pet would keep you busy till I returned.”

And there it was: they’d put up a fight but they were alive. If the nit inspector had wanted them dead, there’d be no point in kidnap. Ned was brought back to the moment by some rattling in the lock of the door. The inspector was trying to break in and his bargeist was now dangerously close, creeping down the stairs one slow paw at a time.

Ned grabbed the presents from the floor and stuffed them into his bag, before dragging his two friends into the kitchen and its waiting full-length mirror. Both Gummy and Archie were now visibly shaken, though thankfully unaware of the enormous set of teeth approaching from the bottom of the stairs.

“Ned, what’s going on? How did you make your mouse’s eyes do that in the shed? And why is a nit inspector trying to break into your house?” clamoured Archie.

Ned cleared his throat as the bargeist prowled into the kitchen, its powerful body readying to pounce.

“I’m going to ask you to do something that you’re going to find a little bit odd,” he said. “Actually, you’re going to be freaked out as hell. I’m really sorry, but you see there’s a monster standing behind you, a really big nasty monster that you can’t see, and if we don’t walk through this mirror, I think it’s going to hurt you, or maybe just me.” As he spoke, he kept his eyes glued to the bargeist’s teeth.

“Have you lost your marbles?” spat Archie, now looking beyond freaked out.

“I promise you, Arch, I haven’t cracked, but you might well think you have in a minute. I don’t want you to worry – there are some nice people waiting for us on the other side and they’re going to take really good care of you.”

Ned could only hope that he was right. Gummy and Arch had nothing to do with the man outside or the creature in his kitchen. They were simply in the wrong place and at the wrong time and only because they’d wanted to help. If they could just get to the Circus, Benissimo and the others would be able to get Gummy and Archie back home again. Whether Ned would be so lucky was another thing entirely.

“Don’t be scared,” he said, before placing the One-Way Key in Archie’s hand and then quite forcibly pushing his two friends through the Armstrongs’ kitchen mirror … and, just like that, they were gone.

Ned had no idea where his parents were or what lay ahead, and yet somewhere deep down inside he felt a small pang of excitement – he was going back to the world of the Hidden.

He took a deep breath and stepped through his own reflection, till there was nothing left of him at all.