Into the Cliff

The dust took ages to settle.

It floated through the round room in thick grey clouds, making everyone cough and blink. Above them, the ceiling curved high overhead. Behind them, the great wooden doors were shut tight.

Mussenden Temple had swallowed them.

"Nobody move," Noah said.

His arm was still across Liam, holding him back from the hole in the floor.

Rory peered over the edge.

"Noah," he said slowly, "the floor didn't just break. Look at it. The edges are smooth."

"I don't care if they're polished with butter," Noah snapped. "The floor opened by itself. We are not going down there."

Áine stepped closer to the hole.

"We can't stay here forever," she said.

"We'll wait," said Noah.

"For who?" Áine asked. "Granny isn't going to look for us inside a locked Temple."

Noah didn't answer.

Down in the darkness, the blue kite gave a soft hum.

It was no longer pulling and jerking like it had outside. Now it floated gently, just below the broken floor, lighting up the stone steps beneath it.

The golden Celtic symbol on the kite glowed like a tiny sun.

Liam leaned forward.

"It wants us to follow it," he whispered.

"No," said Noah. "It wants us to fall into a hole."

"It's not a hole," said Rory, squinting. "It's a staircase."

A cold wind rushed up from below. It smelled of salt water, wet stone and seaweed.

Far beneath them came a deep BOOM.

The children froze.

BOOM.

It came again.

"The sea," Chloe whispered. "That's the waves hitting the bottom of the cliff."

Áine took a deep breath.

Then, before anyone could stop her, she stepped over the edge.

"Áine!" Noah yelled.

Her foot landed on the first stone step.

Then the second.

Then she turned and grinned up at them.

"See?" she said. "Solid."

Noah looked horrified.

"You can't just step into a secret staircase under a cliff!"

Áine shrugged. "I just did."

Rory gave a small laugh.

Chloe looked nervous, but she was already moving closer.

"Noah," she said gently, "we can't get out through the doors. The kite opened the floor. Maybe it's showing us the way."

Noah looked at the locked doors.

Then he looked down at Áine, standing in the blue glow.

Then he looked at Liam.

"Fine," he said. "But we stay together. No running. No touching anything. And nobody lets go."

They climbed down one by one.

Áine went first.

Noah came next, holding Liam's hand tightly.

Chloe followed.

Rory came last, glancing behind him every few seconds as if the Temple might change its mind and close over them.

The stairs curled down through the cliff like a giant stone corkscrew.

Round and round they went.

The light from the kite danced across the walls. The deeper they climbed, the colder it became. Their breath puffed out in little white clouds.

Then Chloe stopped.

"Look," she whispered.

The walls were covered in carvings.

Not scratches.

Not random marks.

Pictures.

There were huge footprints pressed into the stone, each one bigger than a kitchen table. There were strange six-sided rocks, stacked together like giant stepping stones. There were waves, storms, boats, birds and curling shapes that looked almost like animals, though none of the children could quite tell what they were.

One carving showed a massive hand reaching down from the clouds.

Another showed a long shadow beside it.

Not a person.

Not quite an animal.

Something bigger.

Liam moved closer to Noah.

"I don't like that one," he whispered.

Rory leaned in, squinting at the marks.

"These are old," he said. "Really old."

"How old?" asked Áine.

Rory ran his fingers carefully along the edge of one carving.

"Old enough that whoever made them wanted people to remember something."

The blue kite bobbed ahead of them, its golden symbol flashing gently, as if it knew exactly what the pictures meant.

They kept going.

More carvings appeared.

A crown.

A broken spear.

A tiny island surrounded by waves.

A shape like a door.

And again and again, those strange stone columns, stretching out across the walls like a path no ordinary person could walk.

Chloe shivered.

"It feels like the cliff is telling us a story," she said.

Áine stared at the carvings.

"Then why doesn't it just tell us properly?"

At that moment, the stairs shook.

BOOM.

The waves hit the cliff far below.

Dust fell from the ceiling.

Noah tightened his grip on Liam's hand.

"Because," he said, "I don't think this story is finished yet."

They carried on down.

The stairs grew narrower.

The air grew colder.

The blue kite drifted ahead of them like a lantern, its golden symbol pulsing softly in the dark.

Then the stairs ended.

The children stepped out onto a wide stone platform inside a hidden chamber beneath the Temple.

For a moment, nobody spoke.

The chamber was enormous.

Brass wheels turned silently in the walls. Thick stone pipes glowed with blue and gold light. Strange wooden beams clicked and shifted above their heads.

In the middle stood a stone pedestal.

On top of it was a long wooden lever.

The blue kite floated straight towards it.

Rory's mouth fell open.

"It's a machine," he whispered.

"A very old machine," said Chloe.

"A very dangerous machine," said Noah. "Nobody touch anything."

Liam stared at the kite.

The golden symbol was flashing faster now.

Flash.

Flash.

Flash.

"It's telling us something," Liam said.

"It's telling us to leave," Noah replied.

But Liam had already taken one step forward.

"Liam," Noah warned.

Liam took another step.

His foot caught on a stone pipe.

He tripped.

His arms flew out.

And his hands grabbed the lever.

"No!" Noah shouted.

Too late.

Liam's whole weight pulled the lever down.

CLUNK.

The sound echoed through the chamber like a giant door slamming shut.

For one silent second, nothing happened.

Then everything happened at once.

The brass wheels spun faster and faster.

The blue lights in the pipes burst into a bright glow.

The floor shook beneath their feet.

Rory screamed.

Chloe grabbed Áine.

Noah lunged for Liam.

The staircase behind them began to move.

Not crumble.

Not break.

Move.

The stone steps slid upwards, carrying the children with them like a wild fairground ride.

"Hold on!" Noah yelled.

Up they shot.

Round and round.

Faster.

Faster.

The blue light blurred around them.

Liam laughed once, then looked terrified and clamped both hands over his mouth.

With a final jolt, they burst back into the round room of Mussenden Temple.

The floor slammed shut beneath them.

Everything went still.

Noah scrambled to his feet.

"Is everyone okay?"

"I think my stomach is still downstairs," Rory said weakly.

Then the whole Temple groaned.

It was a deep, heavy sound.

Stone scraping against stone.

Chloe pointed at the window.

"Noah," she whispered. "Look."

They ran to the glass.

Outside, the grass was moving.

No.

The Temple was moving.

The ground outside dropped away.

The stone steps vanished below them.

The cliff slipped down.

The sea rushed farther and farther away.

"We're rising," Áine said.

Noah pressed both hands against the window.

They were no longer on the cliff.

They were above it.

Mussenden Temple had lifted itself into the sky.

Liam's mouth opened wide.

"The Temple can fly?"

Rory stared at the walls.

"It's not a Temple," he said. "It's a machine."

"It's a flying machine," said Áine.

"It's a flying trap," said Noah.

Below them, Downhill Beach stretched out like a strip of pale ribbon beside the roaring sea.

Far below, a man and woman walked along the sand, wrapped up against the wind.

The man suddenly stopped.

He looked up at the cliff.

Then he rubbed his eyes.

"Where's the Temple gone?" he said.

The woman looked up too.

The top of the cliff was empty.

No Temple.

No children.

Only mist and grass.

"It's just the fog," she said, pulling her coat tighter. "Come on. It's freezing."

The man stared for one more second.

Then he shook his head and kept walking.

High above them, hidden in cloud, Mussenden Temple turned.

The wind screamed around the windows.

The blue kite hovered in the centre of the room, its golden symbol shining brighter than ever.

The ancient machine rumbled beneath their feet.

Then the Temple shot forward across the sky.

Away from Downhill.

Away from Granny.

Away from home.

Straight towards the Giant's Causeway.

And into a time where none of them belonged.