Six in the Underworld

By Stenton Garvald

Most children's magicians can make dogs out of bendy balloons. Ali-Kazaam, on the other hand, sacrifices goats to the Lord of Darkness (though not as part of his act). That, coupled with the child kidnapping, leads the Splendid Six to their strangest adventure yet - into the very depths of Hell. And because they aren't Orpheus, no-one wants to let them out again ...
Hoorah!

'I think he's blind,' Martin said. He was stand­ing beside the man and waving his hand from side to side in front of the man's face.
'Excuse me,' Jack asked. 'Are you blind?'
'Yes, I am blind,' the man said. 'Who is it that wishes to cross the river?'
'Oh all of us, I should think,' Eric said.
'We're the Splendid Six,' Jack added. 'You may have heard of us.'
The blind man did not answer that. Instead he turned to face Jack and demanded, 'Who pays the Ferryman?'
'Ooh, a riddle!' Eric exclaimed. He enjoyed a good riddle.
Welcome to the darkest visit to the world of The Splendid Six.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Asquith Publishing
• Release date: Nov 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781909420236

Book preview

Stenton Garvald

SIX IN THE UNDERWORLD

The Darkest Adventure of the Splendid Six

SIX IN THE UNDERWORLD

Smashwords Edition

ISBN (EPUB) 978-1-909420-23-6

Copyright 2013 Stenton Garvald.

All rights reserved.

Published by Asquith Publishing

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal use only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book, then please purchase additional copies. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please visit Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the efforts of the author.

Table of Contents

Chapter One – An Old Friend

Chapter Two – Demon-Worshippers of Suburbia

Chapter Three – Milton Keynes and the Road To Hell

Chapter Four – Who Pays the Ferryman

Chapter Five – Going Down

Chapter Six – The Chasm of Despair

Chapter Seven – Quoth The Raven

Chapter Eight – His Satanic Majesty

Chapter Nine – Rescue Mission

Chapter Ten – It All Works Out in the End

Chapter One – An Old Friend

Sophie was sitting on her bed at home, staring at the wall. It wasn’t that she was missing school, she told herself: it was just that she was bored with home.

Nothing exciting ever happened at home.

Nothing exciting ever happened at school either, but at least when she was there she could meet her secret friends – Jack, Eric, Roy, Jo and Martin – and they could have adventures. During the holidays, on the other hand, she and Jack went back to their parents’ houses in different parts of the country.

Sophie told herself that it was only because there was absolutely nothing else to do that she had accepted the invitation to Alice Worthington’s birthday party. Alice had freckles and pig-tails and lived nearby. Her parents knew Sophie’s parents, and the girls had reluctantly played together when they were younger.

Alice’s mother was a strange, thin lady who wore long skirts and bought wicker furniture. She supported causes, and always sent Christmas cards with messages about starving African children, which Sophie didn’t really think was very festive. Mr. Worthington wore a suit all the time, smoked big cigars, and went out whenever Alice or her mother had friends round.

Two days before the party, Sophie’s mother had taken her to choose a birthday present for Alice. Sophie had been planning on finding a doll in the national costume of some really horrible place, like Sudan. When they were in the Toys section, however, she spotted a revolting pink foam ball with pale green stripes. It had a label Suitable for Ages 4 to 8: Alice would be nine on her birthday.

‘What about this, mummy?’ she picked up one of the balls.

‘Are you sure, dear?’

‘Oh yes,’ Sophie smiled. ‘It’s perfect.’

And so they bought the ball, and the lady in the shop wrapped it for them, which was just as well, because Sophie had no idea how to wrap something which was round.

~ ~ ~

Sophie’s mother had bought her a special party dress last year, which Sophie had hoped she would never have to wear. It was black with shiny bits, and Sophie wasn’t at all sure it suited her. It still fitted her, however, and since she was at home she had no option but to wear it to Alice’s party.

Alice answered the door wearing a brown frock with lines on it, which made Sophie feel much better about her own dress – she stared at the lines, but couldn’t work out if they were supposed to be a drawing of something. Perhaps Alice’s mother had bought it for her.

‘I like your dress,’ she hazarded.

‘Poor people made it,’ Alice replied.

‘Oh,’ Sophie said. ‘Where they blind as well?’

‘No,’ Alice said, ‘they weren’t. You’d better come in.’

There was a big cake in the shape of a teddy bear, with nine candles on it. Also Alice’s mother had made funny little pastry things full of sugar, which were quite nice, and lots of savoury snacks with coconut or green things, which everybody left. There were little sausages on pointed wooden sticks as well: Sophie saved some of the sticks as a present for Eric.

After they had run out of food, and paper plates, the children went through to the big lounge. Alice Worthington apparently had a magician at her party: The Magnificent Somebody – Sophie didn’t quite catch his full name.

Despite not really wanting to be there, Sophie enjoyed the act. There were lots of magic rabbits and birds and cards and flowers and things. There were a few of those stupid bendy balloons as well, but not too many. At one point the magician made Alice disappear. But he brought her back again.

Then the magician left, and they played party games. As far as Sophie could tell, the games were all made up: she certainly didn’t know any of them. Perhaps they were African.

Finally, Alice’s mother suggested they all go and play in the garden so that she could tidy up.

They went outside, and Alice organised some running, skipping, throwing and hiding games. A number of these used the pink ball which Sophie had given her: perhaps Alice was going to like it after all.

It was while they were playing one of these throwing games that the ball was lost. One of the girls threw it especially hard, and it bounced high into the air, over the garden wall and out of sight into the street.

‘I’ll see where it is,’ Sophie announced. There was an oak tree in one corner of Alice’s garden, overlooking the road, and Jack had once shown her the best way to climb trees. Sophie scrambled up the lower branches, until she was higher than the wall. She could see the ball, lying in the gutter two or three houses along the road: it seemed terribly far away.

She also saw a man in a long black cloak, coming out of a telephone kiosk across the road. It was The Magnificent Whatever-his-name-was.

That’s odd, Sophie thought to herself. Why is he still hanging around here? Perhaps he can’t afford a taxi home, or has lost his car keys. She almost shouted to him, to ask him to throw the ball back, but he was already walking in the opposite direction.

‘Well?’ Alice’s voice called up at her.

‘It’s just over the wall,’ Sophie