The Tunnels Below by Nadine Wild-Palmer (best short novels of all time .TXT) 📕

out of it, yeah, or they won’t let us in!” Luke said, practically reading her mind.

“That’s just what I was thinking,” said Cecilia.

“Well, don’t. Jasper always tells me when I have any doubts about things that, at the end of it all, you’re the one in control of yourself and your thoughts; you decide how to behave. Please decide to look like you’re really excited about a night out, OK? So, fix up and look smart!”

Cecilia straightened herself, and checked her hair, squeezing the buns on each side.

“You’re right. We’ve got this,” she said.

A young rabbit-face turned to look at them and nudged her guinea-pig-faced friend standing next to her. The nudging travelled through the queue until almost everyone in it had turned to look at them.

A strapping horse-face stallion nodded to them and Cecilia and Luke were ushered into the line. He handed them each an entry ticket as they passed, ripping off the stubs. “Nice dress,” he remarked to Cecilia as they walked through the archway into the entrance hall.

“Thanks,” she replied coyly as she turned her head towards a gentle floral haze of incense that came wafting from within.

17Another Place and Time

Hester had been asleep. She woke up with her head on her dad’s lap and within seconds the world around her came flooding in. There was the gurgle of radios and lots of people in uniforms walking around with a real sense of purpose. A dishevelled man at the reception counter in front of her was dripping with water and speaking in a very loud voice about his bicycle and how much it was worth, saying things like, “Well, what are you going to do about it then, mate?” and “Who’s in charge here, I mean, really in charge!” The man on reception was listening patiently and scribbling things down on a form but he clearly wasn’t his “mate”.

Hester sat upright and looked at her dad, who was resting. Instinctively he opened his eyes and whispered in a hush, “Hester, darling, it’s OK, we will find her. She’s only been gone a few hours, she can’t have gone far.”

At that moment the colossal world of the unknown climbed onto Hester’s back, and under the weight of it all she burst into tears.

“I know she’ll be home soon, Dad. I know it, I know it,” she sobbed, heavy drops falling from weary eyes.

“I know it’s scary, Hess,” he said, extending his arm and folding her into him. “All we can do now is wait and let these guys do their job.”

Hester’s mum walked over with a tray of hot drinks and Hester noticed that there were four drinks in the cup holders. She smiled in a way that held back some pain but not all of it. She put the tray down, and handed Hester a packet of prawn cocktail crisps.

“I thought you might want these, Hess. You haven’t eaten in hours, chicken.”

The three of them looked at the tray of hot drinks.

“I thought, you know, just in case she suddenly shows up. I didn’t want her to feel left out.” Her mum began to sob. “Where is she, Lyle? Why on earth can’t they find our baby?”

Hester watched her dad fold her mum into his free arm and she rested her head on his shoulder as a policeman walked over with a man who was wearing normal clothes and looked a bit like a detective off the TV.

“Now then,” he said in a serious but uplifting voice, “let’s start again from the beginning, shall we? Then we had better get back to the train station and retrace your steps.”

18One for Sorrow

Cecilia stood under the dome ceiling of El Porto Fino in an utterly heavenly world. She felt she had been caught between sunset and the stars. There were small pieces of mirror twinkling above, collecting the rainbow of surrounding light and reflecting it back as though she were standing under a stained glass window on a sunny day. The colours dappled the ground and lit the menagerie of animal faces dotted around her and Luke. There were a lot more Corvus Community members among the crowd than she’d seen before, but there were other dwellers too, some of them wearing wings, beaks and badges to show their support for Jacques d’Or and the Corvus Community as well. Now it seemed even more likely that he would make an appearance.

“I think it’s time to put on the wings Mrs Hoots gave us, Luke.”

“Not a bad call. I think Mrs Hoots was right: we don’t want to stand out too much now we’re in,” Luke replied. “It’s wicked though, isn’t it? I’ve heard about it but I’ve never seen it before. I can’t believe we got in!”

A muffled horn sang out, soothing the crowd to a hush, and they stood waiting for something to happen. The lights faded to a spotlight on the centre of a stage a few feet in front of them, and Cecilia and Luke saw a beautiful brown bird-faced woman with a golden beak saunter onto it. Cecilia fell immediately under her spell.

“That’s Lady-Bird,” Luke muttered to Cecilia, not taking his eyes off where she was standing onstage. Waiting for Lady-Bird to do something sent shivers running down Cecilia’s spine, like when someone hits the tickly spot just behind your ear with their breath. Gasps and whoops were thrown out from the audience sporadically, and Lady-Bird acknowledged these with grace, a slight nod of her head, her bronzed beak glowing before she opened it to release a flute-like call into the dome. It reverberated off the roof and into the ears of the audience, who were instantly lulled by the soaring tone of her voice that brought the taste of the sweetest tears to their lips.

“This is my one for sorrow…” Lady-Bird said to the audience in a soft, sultry voice, but before she began to sing three more spotlights fell upon the stage, revealing a cow-face on