Doctor Who_ Earthworld - Jacqueline Rayner [44]
Just stone.’
‘I think it’s a maze,’ said Anji. ‘I thought they were Greek, but maybe they were Egyptian too. Anyway, I expect we have to find our way to the centre if we want to get out of here. Anyone got a compass?’ No one had. In fact, none of the boys actually knew what a compass was. ‘Well, has anyone got a really good sense of direction?’
‘Yeah, ’course,’ said Zequathon.
Xernic nudged Anji. ‘Zequathon gets lost getting out of bed in the morning.’
The blond boy glared at him, but didn’t argue. Anji took that as a no from all three of them. She sighed. ‘Has anyone got a ball of wool?’
80
EarthWorld
‘What do you want that for?’ asked Beezee.
‘In the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur,’ said Anji, meeting blankly un-comprehending looks all round, ‘when Theseus goes into the labyrinth – that’s a sort of maze – he unwinds a ball of thread as he goes, so he can find his way out again, and so he doesn’t cross his path. If you don’t know where you’re going, you can end up walking round and round the same bit for hours. That happened to me at Hampton Court once. Still, never mind that now.’ But no one had a ball of wool. Or a bag of pebbles, or even breadcrumbs (cue much explanation of fairy tales – which the boys dismissed as kids’ stuff, but Anji could tell they found quite fascinating really).
‘Um, Anji,’ said Xernic, when she’d exhausted all options, and was calculating how many disposable marker items they had between them (she’d got as far as three ANJI badges and a pair of gold hoop earrings), ‘your top’s made of wool, isn’t it?’
‘No,’ said Anji, looking down at the black fabric peeking out from under her blazer, ‘it’s knitted cotton.’
‘But. . . it would unravel. . . ’
‘But it’s Harvey Nicks!’
But we have to find our way through this maze, you said so.’
She thought for a moment. ‘Can’t you unravel your jumpsuit thing?’
‘Fused plasti-thread. Sorry.’
Anji looked suspiciously at him. ‘Did you just make that up, or is it a real future thing?’ she asked.
‘It’s real,’ said Xernic, apologetically.
‘Oh, all right. But turn your backs.’ Anji sent up a brief prayer that she was wearing a good bra, rather than an old grey I’m-not-seeing-my-boyfriend-tonight one, which reminded her that she didn’t have a boyfriend any more, anyway. She hurriedly brushed that thought aside as she took off her top –
although she did note that the bra was a sensible black cotton one, which wasn’t too bad. And she was able to do up the buttons of her blazer so it hardly showed, anyway. She wondered if every tourist who came here was expected to sacrifice a piece of clothing, or if there should be a ball of string but one of the ANJI boys had hidden it. OK, so they were supposed to be working together to get out of a potential life-or-death situation, but she’d known teenage boys go further for a potential glimpse of underwear. Or maybe she’d just overlooked something obvious again. Whatever, the top was sacrificed now.
She tied an end of black cotton around a convenient nail(which rather gave credence to the ‘missing string’ theory), and they set off.
Powerplay
81
Xernic was right: it took no time at all for their eyes to adjust to the dark.
With Anji’s extremely expensive thread to guide them, they managed not to cross their own path, and despite a fair number of dead ends, eventually reached the centre of the maze. Anji couldn’t suppress a shiver. This was scarier than dinosaurs. Which was ridiculous, because they’d been an actual, real danger, and this was just a horror archetype.
It was a crypt. On either side of the room stood a large stone sarcophagus, each bearing a humanoid image – one of a jackal-headed man, the other with the head of an eagle. ‘I don’t think that’s quite right,’ said Anji – and then realised she hadn’t spoken aloud at all. She couldn’t possibly be frozen with fear, could she? Did that really happen? Oh, this was stupid – she, the grown-up, worldly, experienced member of the group, was actually gripping the arm of one of these. . . children! She let go hurriedly.
‘I didn’t mind,