Marigold and the Diamond Thieves

Chapter Twenty-Six: Her Final Fall

The cries for the Kohinoor and the gasps and exclamations from her friends faded out of Marigold's head almost immediately. Shock had pushed her into a private room and locked the door. Inside, her thoughts raced around her.

I'm Daffodil's baby! I'm Baby Green! My Mum is dead... My real Dad...

She felt the panic rising up within her.

Don't think about that now. It's too much. Something else! Focus!

'The Kohinoor is required'. The computer's voice broke through the walls of her imaginary room. She looked beyond the ranting skull of Lady Artifice. She took in the steam rising from the clanking Crusher, the pedestal inside the glass cabinet, the incredibly long ladder...

Now's your chance! Go! Run!

She thrust the diamond back into her trouser pocket and darted up the ladder. Beneath her she saw Lady Artifice fling herself onto the Crusher's control screen. Marigold tightened her grip on the sides of the ladder. Something was moving behind her.

'Look out!' Jet was standing on his hind legs and shouting up at her.

She turned her head. The Crusher's diamond grabbers were inches from her. She felt a tug on the collar of her sailor suit. The pincer fingers were tearing at the material. She reached for the top rung of the ladder and quickly pulled herself up. She heard a rip as she left the collar behind.

'Do be careful, my dear', she heard Ethel call.

Marigold clambered inside the cabinet. She shut the door seconds before the metal arms swung at her once more. With a dreadful screech, they scratched across the glass panels. She looked at the top of the pedestal. The hole in the centre of it was waiting for the diamond.

'The Kohinoor is required', the computer's voice insisted. From her breast pocket, she took out the grey stone.

'Not today!' she replied to the voice. She slammed the stone into the hole.

'Fatal Error', announced the computer in a calm tone that made her wonder how much of an error it was. But when she opened the door, she was met with a terrible clanking sound. Every part of the Crusher was shaking violently. It was making the floor of the cabinet rock from side to side. She looked for her friends. Bert was easiest to spot of course. She located the other three far below. They were all craning their necks to see her.

'Take cover!' she shouted above the noise. She saw Jet bound under a work bench. Bert and Ethel flattened themselves against the attic floor. But Benjamin didn't move. Marigold could see no sign of Lady Artifice.

Where is she?

The metal arms of the grabbers were thrashing madly around the ladder. She carefully placed her feet on the top rung.

Duck! Turn! Twist!

As she made each thought a movement, she managed to avoid the reach of their fingers.

'Hurry, Marigold!' Benjamin was calling to her from the distant foot of the ladder.

Diamond light was still shooting up the Crusher's barrel. But the machine seemed determined to shake itself to pieces. The ladder wobbled precariously. She gasped and took one of her feet off a rung. A metal arm swept through the air towards her legs. She strengthened her grip on the wood and flipped them up into the air. She felt something move across the top of her thigh. The Kohinoor had slid out of her pocket. She watched it fly down the ladder.

A black shape rose up from the floor. It tottered towards the descending diamond. Lady Artifice held out her silk skirt and caught the Kohinoor in it.

Marigold frowned and placed her feet back on a rung. Huge clouds of steam were rising out of the machine. They hid the bottom half of the ladder. She was  having to feel for the next rung now. At the same time, she constantly turned her head to spot the arms swooping towards her. She slipped as she misjudged the position of a rung.

You can do this.

But the moment after she'd given herself these words of encouragement, she felt a vibration on the ladder. It was closer and lighter than the shaking caused by the Crusher. A skeleton's hand rose out of the steam.

'You've unbalanced everything with the wrong stone!' cried the skull that followed the hand.

Marigold stared Lady Artifice in the eye socket. 'I know!' she shouted back. 'It doesn't belong.'

The skull snarled at her revealing its last tooth. It looked up to the pedestal - that was knocking against the walls of the cabinet - and then down to the Kohinoor clutched in the bony grasp of its other hand.

'How can you still be alive?' Marigold wondered aloud.

'Because I will it so', came the reply.

The Black Flame more like. It must still have some power. Move!

She dodged out of the way of a grabber. She found herself hanging from the side of the swaying ladder.

Lady Artifice laughed and advanced up the rungs. Marigold felt the freezing cold skeleton hand on hers as it tried to prise her fingers from the wood. Both of the metal arms were suddenly coming straight for her. She twisted away as the twitching pincers moved closer to her face. Lady Artifice succeeded in tugging her hand from the ladder. As she dangled by one arm she felt the hot touch of the pincers on her cheek.

'No!' she heard Benjamin cry.

Jump! Too far. Can't see. If hitting the floor doesn't kill you, the jaws will.

The pincers moved up her head and around her ears. She closed her eyes.

You're going to die this time.

She wailed with utter frustration.

There was movement across her face. Somebody was yelling. She opened her eyes and pulled herself back onto the ladder. She scrambled up a few rungs. Just beneath her, one of the grabbers had clamped itself to Lady Artifice's back and lifted her into the air. The other was heading straight for the Kohinoor in her flailing hand.

Marigold saw the skull look at the diamond for a moment before it made a decision. The stone was reluctantly flung from her grasp. Marigold waited for the hovering grabber to pursue the Kohinoor. But it only moved a very short distance. Its pincers locked onto The Black Flame.

'Release me!' demanded Lady Artifice. 'This diamond is not required! I control you!'

The Crusher began to fall apart. Pipes, cogs and then the door of the cabinet whizzed past Marigold, clanging and smashing as they hit the floor. Like a palm tree in the wind, the ladder swayed from side to side. Fear froze the small girl's grip to its rungs.

'Marigold!' Benjamin cried in desperation.

The shrieking Lady Isabella Artifice was dragged through the air by the grabbers. Pincer fingers plucked The Black Flame from her chest. The remaining bag of black and bones was dropped into the gnashing jaws just as the spiked plunger descended to meet them.

Marigold was relieved when the unforgettable scream was drowned out by the crashing of the machine's destruction. On the rocky ladder, she watched the barrel split into two. With the screech of shredding metal, one of the grabber's arms was torn from the Crusher. It fell into the jaws. The other arm immediately followed it - as if it couldn't exist alone.

Orange flames rose from within the jaws. Through black smoke, she saw Benjamin's fearful face. He held out his arms to her.

Jump!

She wrenched her fingers from the ladder. To the sound of a deafening bang, she fell into a dazzling rainbow of light.

Next Chapter: Bob's Plan