Chapter 29
Beware the Curse
It was late when the rain arrived. At first the drops of water met the roof slowly. Nat stared up at the ceiling, listening to the deep notes. Then the weather conductor lifted his baton and ordered every cloud to play at once. The downpour began. Nat gave up on her book and clambered into bed.
Dreams of diving into cold, dark water haunted her sleep. She woke up shivering, with strange warnings in her head. Beware the curse, she heard a voice say. The words were so clear she sat up and turned on the lamp. There was no-one in the room with her. A light outside caught her eye; she peered out the window. Whatever was casting the light was a long way off, out on the ridgeline, in the direction of Pukatea Mountain. It was warm and comforting in the dark night. She watched the raindrops distort on the pane.
The voice drifted through her head again. Beware the curse. Do not be the first to open the treasure. She leapt to her feet. Still, there was no-one there. A banging on the window made her heart jump, but the familiar outline of Pi reassured her. She slid open the window and he burst in, dripping wet. He flew three circles round her head and perched on the window latch. Then the strangest thing happened. Pi started chirping, but his tone was unlike anything Nat had heard before. She could have sworn the bird was lecturing her, telling her to listen to the voice, be careful, and get back to bed. Befuddled, Nat nodded at Pi, and snuggled under her duvet. The fantail roosted on the bedside lamp and this time Nat slept deeply, without any dreams.
Nat didn’t know what time the screams began but they were very early and she knew instantly who they were coming from. There was only one person with a voice like that. Kathleen. She scrambled free from her duvet and raced down the stairs.
‘It hurts!’ wailed Kathleen. ‘Here and here and here!’
Nat could hear her Dad soothing Kathleen as best he could, but it wasn’t working.
‘It really, really hurts!’ she cried as Nat arrived in the bedroom.
‘Let me see,’ said Mike. Kathleen cried out as she rolled onto her stomach, and wailed again as her Dad inspected her back. Nat gasped. Even from the doorway she could see nasty red spots all over her sister. She rushed closer but Mike stuck his hand out to stop her.
‘Out!’ he commanded. ‘This looks contagious!’
Nat backtracked. ‘What is it?’ she asked.
‘Maybe measles,’ he said, sliding Kathleen’s slippers onto her feet. ‘I don’t know. If it’s come on this quick I’d better take her straight to the hospital.’
Mike wrapped Kathleen in a blanket and scooped her up in his arms. The screaming hadn’t stopped.
‘I don’t know how long we’ll be gone,’ he yelled. ‘I’ll bring home something from the bakery.’
Nat trailed them down the hallway to wave goodbye. But as Mike stopped to pick up his keys, Nat almost fell over her own feet when Kathleen winked at her and mouthed ‘Good luck.’
As the front door slammed Nat heard a noise behind her. Jack was standing in the hall, fully dressed and prepared to go adventuring. He had a bulging backpack, a helmet with a light and a wetsuit woven through the straps of his pack.
He grinned, and held up a red marker pen. ‘It was much better you didn’t know that was coming,’ he said. ‘Much more convincing.’ Nat’s jaw dropped open in astonishment. His grin widened. ‘Let the games begin.’
Under the old mahoe tree, Nat could see Barnaby and Elijah waiting. The rain had stopped for a moment, but the gnarled branches were still heavy with dew. Pi flew ahead and danced around the tree, waiting for Nat and her heavy backpack to catch up.
‘Glad you could make it this time,’ yelled Barnaby as they approached. ‘Is Splatters up to date with everything?’
‘Not really,’ said Jack.
‘Keeping her out of the loop huh?’ said Elijah. ‘I’ll fill you in.’ He leapt on his bike and they were off. They bumped over the gravel in silence, but as soon as they hit the sealed road, the story of what the Lima boys had been up to flooded out.
‘It started when Barnaby and I were looking at the map,’ said Elijah. ‘You can get into the Rehua Reserve from Abraham’s place pretty easily – it’s a straight line through the bush.’
Barnaby sped past on his bike, hands resting behind his head. ‘Actually I realised it – not him.’
Elijah ignored his brother. ‘We’ve checked it out and left markers on the track. The only problem is the drop-off.’
‘Huh?’
‘The path through the bush comes out on top of the cliffs above the lagoon.’
An image of the sheer rock face flashed through Nat’s mind. ‘We can’t climb down that.’
‘But we can abseil,’ said Elijah. ‘That’s what Barnaby set up yesterday. It’s all rigged and ready to go.’
‘Nice,’ said Nat. ‘That’ll work out better anyway. There are too many people in the reserve for us to walk in with all this gear. It’d be totally suspect.’
‘That’s what we decided,’ said Elijah. ‘But we have to teach Riki how to abseil.’
‘I’ll do it,’ called Barnaby.
Elijah looked at Nat and shook his head. ‘Maybe that’d be best left to you.’
‘No probs,’ she said.
‘The Tautoru thing stumped me at first,’ said Elijah as he swerved around the next corner. ‘I kept looking at star maps of Orion’s belt and wondering which of the two passages was the right one.’
‘But he was looking at it the wrong way,’ said Barnaby, pulling up alongside them. ‘Well – from a Northern Hemisphere perspective.’
‘We see it upside down,’ said Nat.
‘Exactly,’ said Barnaby. ‘So that’s the way we should trace it on the rock.’
‘And that’s what we found,’ said Elijah. ‘When you get there, it’s obvious.’
‘It’s the final key,’ interrupted Barnaby. ‘How’d you know about it again?’
Nat smiled without saying a word. She couldn’t believe everything was working out – all they needed to do was ride to Abraham’s, find their way through the bush, abseil down the cliff and grab the treasure. It was going to be an incredible mission. She looked up at the heavy skies and remembered the warning from her father. They’d definitely have to keep an eye on the weather. With Pi flying beside her, Nat pedalled hard and momentarily threw both arms out. Then she swung them back onto the handlebars – just in case.
They raced down Abraham’s driveway and skidded to a halt.
Riki met them all at the door with a wave for the boys and a massive hug for Nat.
‘I’m sorry I had to throw you off the scent yesterday,’ she said. ‘You were too quick!’
‘No worries,’ said Nat. ‘Everything you’ve done more than makes up for it.’
Abraham appeared behind her with a beaming smile. Nat realised that this was a dream come true for him. ‘Well done,’ he said, shuffling into the light. ‘Is the rain holding off?’ He looked skywards. ‘For the moment. Good. Let us all come together inside.’
In the lounge, everyone’s gear was pooled.
‘The water is cold,’ said Elijah. ‘Like, bone-chillingly cold. We all need wetsuits.’
‘I’ve got two,’ said Barnaby. ‘One for Riki, one for me.’
Riki nodded her thanks. ‘I’ve organised lots of food. We’ve got chicken sandwiches, chocolate brownie and thermoses of –’
‘Milo!’ chorused everyone.
Abraham chuckled. ‘It does seem to be the magic ingredient in your adventures.’
Elijah scanned the equipment. ‘We’ve all got helmets, right?’
‘Mine is a bit old,’ admitted Riki. ‘We found it in the back shed.’
‘Doesn’t matter,’ said Barnaby. ‘They’re built to last. Here’s a light to fasten onto it.’
‘Waterproof?’ asked Riki.
Barnaby grinned. ‘Yep. I nicked Dad’s best one – and all the spare batteries I could find.’
‘What do we put the treasure in?’ a
sked Jack.
‘Oh,’ said Nat.
Everyone turned and looked at her.
‘You okay?’ asked Riki.
‘I just remembered a dream I had last night,’ said Nat.
Abraham leaned forward, and something about his stance silenced everyone else.
‘What happened in the dream?’ he asked.
‘It was odd,’ said Nat. ‘A voice kept running through my head. I could see a light down the valley, so I got up to check – then Pi banged on the window.’ She looked at the old man. ‘When I let him in, it was like he was telling me off.’
With one low whistle from Abraham, the bird flew straight into the room and perched on his shoulder. He didn’t need to be asked any questions, he launched into a monologue. It seemed to Nat that he was using his wings to gesture and make sure his point got across.
‘The message came from your friends in Pukatea Mountain,’ said Abraham. ‘Pi wanted you to listen. What did the voice say?’
Nat took a deep breath. ‘It said, ‘Beware the curse. Do not be the first to open the treasure.’
‘No way!’ said Barnaby. ‘That’s crazy!’
Riki cleared her throat. ‘If a message has been passed on we have to take it seriously.’
‘A dream and a talking bird?’ said Jack, looking sceptical. ‘We’ve been discussing this stuff for a few weeks now. No-one’s said anything about a curse before.
‘Yes they have,’ said Abraham. ‘It is you who have not been listening. The Emerald Eye of Babylon carries a curse of horrid proportions. Ariki is right; to ignore the message would be foolish.’ He looked around the room. ‘Do not be the first ones to open that chest, children. Whoever does so will never leave the cave. Do you understand?’
Heads nodded in agreement. ‘I know your fathers and I will have much to discuss at the end of this exercise, but I will not take any responsibility for sheer recklessness. I will summon everything I know to protect you and see you through, but there are two things you must remember.’ Abraham looked each one of them in the eyes before he spoke. ‘You must help each other. And you must all be very careful.’