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

didn’t think you could make things any worse than you already had but now look!” Rage shook his whole body.

“Canines can prove to be such loyal friends, obedient and submissive as well as fearfully strong. They’re quite dangerous if not controlled to some degree. Don’t you think, Cecilia? Corvus!” Jacques d’Or shouted into the dark spaces above the tower. Two crow-faces flew down like shadows. One of them was the beautiful Aubrey. He handed Jacques d’Or a collar, which he fixed to Hunter’s neck and then chained it to the wall of the Nest.

“That will be all, thank you. I’ll deal with this little girl and her so-called friends!”

Slowly descending on a pulley was a small wire cage; inside sat Lady-Bird, her wings in tatters and her face hidden.

“You didn’t really think that you’d outsmart me did you, silly little girl! I’d be wary competing with an opponent I knew so very little about if I were you. Tah-da!” Jacques d’Or sang, gesturing towards an egg shape being rolled along the ground. Cecilia could see Luke inside it.

“Bring him here so she can get a good look at her friend,” said Jacques d’Or. “He’ll make a splendid addition to my Nest, don’t you think?”

Luke banged on the wall of the egg cell he was trapped inside, but Cecilia couldn’t hear a word he was saying.

“So you recognise this guy?” Jacques d’Or continued. “But… what about this one?”

A second egg cell was rolled out before her and brought to a standstill next to Luke’s. Kuffi sat inside it; he pressed his furry hand up to the casing as if to say hello.

“Your old buddy pal, Koof!” Jacques d’Or barked the words. “It looks like you’ve scored a hat trick. And just to top it off… can we reveal the bonus prize?” he screamed, clapping his wings together.

A figure was dragged in along the dirt and plonked down at Cecilia’s feet. She didn’t recognise her at first, so many of her feathers had been plucked out.

“Do you know who this is? It’s the one and only Madame Midnight! A little extra something just for me! Well, isn’t this fun?” Jacques d’Or mused. “No?” He narrowed his eyes. “Do you know what, Cecilia?”

Cecilia shook her head. She could not find the words.

“This is all your fault!” he went on, and at that the Corvus Community let out a searing caw, cackling through the wide open space, sweeping into the air and whooping.

Cecilia stood, petrified and broken.

“He’s a bit bedraggled, isn’t he? Your old pal Kuffi has refused to eat or drink anything—he believes we will poison him! Now, would I do such a thing?”

Cecilia felt the familiar sensation of her skin crawling as he spoke.

“But don’t worry, Cecilia, the show’s not over yet! Next,” he cawed. “Nothing like a bit of light entertainment! Bring on the menagerie!”

A few of the Divers were brought in. They had been tied up together. Cecilia lost all hope… almost. She counted them up quickly, scanning the group with her eyes. There were two missing—no, one, as she saw Owen was being dragged in from the Black Forest. But Rory, the shark-face, he must’ve got away, and when was the last time she saw Gaia? She couldn’t remember; maybe she hadn’t come at all. Cecilia remembered that Doltha had the elemental sphere and she prayed they wouldn’t find it. That was not something any of them wanted Jacques d’Or to get his beak around.

“Search them,” commanded Jacques d’Or. Just as they began patting down the Divers, there was a commotion high in the rafters of the Nest.

“Something’s coming through the walls, boss!” shouted a voice from way up.

“What?” replied Jacques d’Or.

“Something is digging its way through into the roof, sir,” another voice called out. “It’s the truth, I swear!”

Jacques d’Or looked around at his surrounding Corvus members. Helen was walking over with Marvin and Julius; they all looked furious.

“There’s something coming through… RIGHT NOW, sir!” Hysteria was breaking out above.

“Helen, go up and see what all the commotion is!” said Jacques d’Or.

“Yes, sir, at once.” She bent low and hopped forward once, then twice and took to the air. A few moments later she returned with Rory in her clutches and flung him together with the rest of them.

“I thought something fishy was going on!” said Marvin. Julius patted him on the back and they both burst into fits of laughter.

“The one that got away. Well done! I do love a good scavenger hunt!” Jacques d’Or was in his element. Helen scouted along the line, picking the Divers out in no particular order, and Julius and Marvin finished patting them down. Helen looked annoyed.

“Empty-handed, boss, apart from their weapons, of course,” she said, jabbing her fellow Corvus in the side with one of the spears they had confiscated.

Cecilia looked at Doltha; the look on her face told her that everything was going to be OK.

Doltha almost smiled and Jacques d’Or noticed.

“I saw that, flipper. For that you can go first.”

“What are you going to do to them?” stammered Cecilia, as more of the Corvus Community gathered out of the darkness.

A ruckus broke out from one of the egg cells at the top of the tower. The prisoners had started drumming on their egg cells furiously. There was a loud cracking sound and Helen pointed out a beam of light coming through the wall where Rory had passed.

“Look!” Helen shouted at Jacques d’Or. “Where’s that light coming from?”

Members of the Corvus turned their gaze upwards to see what was happening. A shaft of pure golden light was seeping through a hole high in the cave and shining directly onto the prisoners in the upper egg cells. The light was so strong that the egg cell had begun to crack!

“What on earth is that? Where is it coming from? Aubrey!” shouted Jacques d’Or.

Aubrey leapt out of the shadows into the air but instead of blocking out the light, he began scratching at the hole, moving great clumps of dirt with