The Curse of Deadman's Forest

by Victoria Laurie

  Caphiera’s smile vanished. She cursed and pounded the tabletop, which was immediately coated with a sheet of solid ice. The witch gasped; her bronze pedestal was now stuck to the table, but she made no complaint … which was wise.

  “When will the Keeper arrive in Paris?” asked Caphiera.

  The witch attempted to collect herself before peering again into the crystal ball. “It will be in the summer,” she said. “Nearly a year hence.”

  “Where is he now?” asked Atroposa.

  The witch dipped her chin, her brow furrowed in confusion. “Lost,” she said. “He is beyond my sight, mistresses. It is almost as if he has hidden himself from gifted seers like me.”

  Caphiera nodded. “He is a crafty one,” she agreed. “He has eluded us all this time and has learned to conceal himself well.” Getting up from the table, the sorceress called to her sister. “Come, Atroposa,” she said. “We have much to do before next summer.” She then laid a few gold pieces down on the tabletop, which the soothsayer greedily snapped up.

  The sorceresses turned to the door but were stopped by the woman when she suddenly called, “Mistresses?”

  Caphiera turned back warily. If the old hag asked for more gold, it would be the last request she ever made. “Yes?”

  “Might you pass on a message to your brother?”

  “That would depend on what it is, witch,” said Caphiera.

  The old woman tugged again at her shawl as the temperature dipped even lower. “Yes, of course,” the woman agreed nervously. “You see, I’ve had another vision that he might find useful.”

  Caphiera was out of patience. “Out with it, then!” she snapped.

  The witch jumped and her lip began to tremble. “If you please, tell him that I have seen the children he seeks moving beyond the reach of the fortress that protects them. I would be most grateful.”

  Caphiera and Atroposa exchanged a look. “This message interests us,” Caphiera said, edging back to the table where the witch sat. “Where do you see them?”

  The witch smiled, clearly relieved. “In my vision, they seem to be near a large hedge maze. They will be quite vulnerable, and I have no doubt they could easily be taken.”

  “When?”

  “Within a day or two at the most, mistress. When the moon is at her zenith.”

  Caphiera smiled again and saw that the witch sat rigidly in her chair, clearly trying hard not to cower. “I shall pass the message on to my brother,” Caphiera said before tossing one additional gold coin onto the slippery tabletop. “He shall be most pleased.”

  THE HEDGE MAZE

  I an stood, covered in dirt and grime, at the top of the tower with Carl and Theo. “It’s clear,” he announced, feeling the weariness of hard work seep deep into his bones.

  Throughout the past several nights—ever since the doors to the keep had been padlocked and a guard had been set outside to enforce the quarantine—he and Carl had been taking turns shoveling out the debris at the bottom of the escape tunnel.

  “And I’ve got the last of our supplies,” Carl said, holding up a knapsack. “The sundial pointed me to those extra batteries.”

  Theo looked out at the huge moon bathing the landscape in a soft silver glow. “We should leave immediately, then,” she said.

  Ian grimaced. With the quarantine in place, the threat of Theo’s being taken away by the major had been delayed, but now they were all in fear of the polio virus, which was quickly wreaking havoc within the orphanage. Nearly a third of the children were deathly ill, and Jaaved’s condition was most grave. Ian, Carl, and Theo had agreed to abandon their plans of escaping to Amsterdam and instead follow Laodamia’s instructions to go through the portal and bring back the Healer; however, Ian still held quite a few reservations. “Are we quite certain this is what we should do, Theo?” he asked her for the tenth time.

  She regarded him patiently. “We’ve no choice. You know that with each passing moment, Jaaved grows weaker. The boy Will has already died, Ian! Even Thatcher remains in peril, not to mention we’ve heard nothing of the earl. For all we know he could also be stricken in his apartment in London! Carl and I must go in search of the Healer before one more life is lost.”

  Ian turned away to face the window. She’d said the words that still cut through him. Only Theo and Carl were going. He’d been outvoted on that one, as they’d both pointed out that if Ian ventured with them through the portal, Lachestia would surely kill him.

  Instead, he would see them safely to the portal and await their return, and if they had not come back by dawn, he would hurry back to the keep and make excuses for them. He thought it shouldn’t be too difficult to hide their whereabouts for at least a day amid the chaos of the polio outbreak.

  Carl rubbed his eyes tiredly. “There’s one thing we still need to get past,” he reminded them. “We’ve no idea how to open that lock on the gate leading to the portal.”

  Ian turned back around. “I may have worked out how to locate the key.”

  “How?” Theo and Carl asked together.

  Ian reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out the sundial. “Dial,” he said as he held it up to the light, “point the way to the key that unlocks the gate to the portal.”

  An instant later a shadow emerged across the dial’s surface. It pointed directly to Castle Dover.

  “That’s bloomin’ brilliant!” Carl exclaimed. “Good thinking, mate!”

  Ian smiled, rather proud of himself, but he quickly sobered, because he had another matter to discuss with them. “When you find the Healer, I don’t think the two of you should return to the keep.”

  Carl and Theo exchanged a look. “What do you mean?” Theo asked. “Of course we’re coming back. You’ll need help, and we’ll still be under quarantine.”

  Ian shook his head. “I’ll manage,” he insisted. “And the Healer can cure you two if you are carrying the virus. You won’t need to return here, because you won’t be sick.”

  “But where will we go?” Carl asked.

  Theo’s mouth had fallen open and she grabbed Carl’s arm. “To Amsterdam!” she said quickly.

  Ian sighed in relief, glad she seemed enthusiastic about his idea. “It’s the only way to avoid the major,” he explained, recalling the scene several days earlier, when the major’s motor car had pulled up to the keep, only to be turned away by the guard and the quarantine sign. Ian knew that as soon as the quarantine was lifted, the major would be back to claim Theo. “You two can go on to Amsterdam ahead of us, and after Jaaved is better, I’ll sneak him and the Healer out of the keep through the tunnel and we’ll join you within a day.”

  “But how will you know where to find us?” Theo asked.

  Ian smiled at her and held up the sundial. “I’ll find you.”

  Carl looked unsure and he turned to Theo to see if she agreed with the idea. “Yes,” she said, nodding vigorously. “It’s a good plan, Ian. As soon as Jaaved is well and the quarantine here is lifted, you’ll come join us.”

  Carl shrugged. “All right,” he said. “After we bring back the Healer, you and I will go to Calais, then Dunkirk, and make our way by train to Amsterdam.”

  Ian regarded his friend soberly. “Take care of her, Carl.”

  “You can count on me, mate,” Carl assured him.

  Ian truly hoped he could.

  It took only another hour to make sure they had everything for their journey and creep their way down the ladder to the tunnel. At the bottom, Ian picked up one of the knapsacks, which he’d tucked away earlier. Inside were most of their money and food supplies. He withdrew the bulk of the funds and gave the pound notes to Carl, along with half the food. “There’s enough here to see you safely to Amsterdam,” he said. “When you arrive, inquire about renting us a nice flat somewhere close to the port so it will be easier for us to find you.”

  Carl took the money and the food. “A flat near the port, got it.”

  Ian then climbed onto the large standing stone that still
barricaded the tunnel, and helped Theo along as she followed him through the hole he and Carl had managed to clear. When they were on the other side, Ian pointed his torch down the dark corridor of rock headed to the fork. At the fork, he turned to the right, which he remembered led them directly to the gardener’s shack at Castle Dover.

  It took them nearly half an hour to reach the ladder at the shack, but they made it through without incident.

  When they emerged from the trapdoor in the shack, Ian again consulted the dial. “Sundial,” he commanded, “show us where to find the key that unlocks the portal gate, but give us a route that ensures we won’t be seen by anyone.” Immediately, a shadow formed across the dial’s surface, yet it seemed to be pointing behind him. Ian looked over his shoulder. There was nothing there but the trapdoor. Curiously, he turned the sundial in that direction, and the shadow thickened. “It’s saying it wants us to go back down into the tunnel,” he announced.

  “The key’s in the tunnel?” Carl asked.

  Ian shrugged. “There’s only one way to find out.”

  The three of them climbed back down the ladder and Ian pointed the ray of his torch onto the surface of the dial. “This way,” he said, retracing his steps back the way they’d come. He’d gone about twenty meters when the shadow, which had pointed straight ahead at the twelve o’clock position, shifted abruptly to three o’clock. Ian halted and looked to his right. There was a very narrow alcove cut into the rock right next to him. “Why have we stopped?” asked Theo from behind.

  “The shadow’s pointing into the alcove,” Ian said, showing her the dial. He wondered if he’d perhaps confused the dial by asking it the wrong question.

  “But this can’t be the way in,” said Carl. “It doesn’t lead anywhere.”

  Ian moved his beam away from the stone and shone it on the surface of the dial. “The sundial says it does.”

  “Well, that’s rubbish,” Carl said flatly. “Ian, there’s nothing in there but some dusty old cobwebs.”

  But Theo had already ventured forward a few paces to inspect the alcove herself. “Maybe not,” she said to them as she swiped at the webs and moved to the end of the tight space.

  She then lifted her hand and knocked on the rock. It made a hollow sound like she’d rapped on wood. “Blimey!” gasped Carl.

  Ian quickly moved forward and stood just behind Theo, as the alcove didn’t allow them to stand side by side. He reached over her head to run his fingers across the surface of what appeared to be solid rock, and was both thrilled and surprised to discover that he was actually touching wood painted to resemble stone. “‘Blimey’ is right!” he agreed.

  “There’s a handle,” Theo whispered, motioning to the left about a foot under where Ian’s fingers were feeling the paneling.

  Quickly Ian moved his hand down and felt around, and almost immediately he found a small metal handle covered in dust. It had blended in perfectly with the color of the stone. He was able to turn it just like a doorknob. There was a click and a loud creak and the painted panel swung inward, revealing a set of stone stairs. Theo moved forward first and Ian and Carl followed close behind up one flight to another door. Theo turned the knob, and with another loud creak, it opened.

  The three of them stood there for a moment, stunned into silence, and Ian felt Carl move up behind him to take a peek over his shoulder. “Best to get on with it, then,” he whispered after they’d stared long enough at the dark interior.

  Theo moved ahead first, followed by Ian and then Carl. Ian was amazed when he entered a dark room and discovered it filled with the mounted heads of dozens of exotic animals. With some relief, he realized immediately where they were.

  “Gaw, would you look at that?” Carl whispered excitedly while he bounced the beam of his torch all about the enormous room.

  “Where are we?” Theo wondered.

  “The earl’s study,” Ian said. “I was here last year for a meeting with the earl and our schoolmasters.”

  “Meeting?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he said. “It was right after your first visions of the Fury, do you remember?”

  Theo made a face. “Yes, but that’s one vision I’d prefer to forget, thank you.”

  “Where does the dial say the key is?” Carl whispered, reminding them of their mission.

  “Oh, right,” Ian said, pulling up the bronze relic to shine his torch on the surface again. “I believe it’s pointing over there.” He swung his torch in the direction the shadow had indicated, across the room to a small table with a lamp.

  Ian quickly traversed the room and began searching the table for the key. The table had one drawer, which he pulled open, but there was nothing inside, so he felt underneath, thinking perhaps the earl had hidden it there.

  When his hand found nothing but the underside of the drawer, he pulled the table carefully away from the wall and searched behind it, but there was no key anywhere.

  “It’s not here,” he said impatiently.

  Theo held out her hand for the sundial, and while she inspected it, Ian looked at Carl and shrugged.

  “It’s not pointing at the table, Ian,” she said after a moment, and he realized that she was tilting the sundial slightly. “It’s pointing up the wall.”

  “Up the wall?” he said. “Theo, how could it be pointing up the wall?”

  “Look for yourself,” she insisted, showing him the dial. To his surprise he saw that when Theo tilted the dial toward the ceiling, the shadow lengthened and began to pulse, but when she tilted the dial down toward the table, the shadow all but disappeared.

  Ian again looked up at the wall in front of them. “But there’s nothing there,” he said, frustrated. “I mean, other than the head of that antelope.”

  Carl and Theo both gasped as if they’d just discovered something. “What?” he asked.

  “Behind the antelope’s head!” Carl whispered excitedly. “Here, Ian, climb on this chair and see if you can have a look behind it.”

  Ian eagerly mounted the chair. Very carefully, he lifted the bottom of the earl’s hunting trophy just enough to shine his torch behind it.

  He had thought to find the key dangling on a nail, so it was with no small amount of surprise when he gasped and said, “There’s a safe here!”

  “Safe?” Carl and Theo said together.

  Ian put his torch into his pocket and firmly lifted the antelope head off its nail. It was much lighter than he’d expected, and he handed it to Carl. Ian then pulled his torch back out to closely inspect the safe. It had a combination lock, and when he pulled on the handle, it was stuck fast. “We’ll never get in,” he said, disappointed. “Who knows what combination the earl’s chosen for the lock?”

  “Maybe he’s written it down somewhere nearby?” Carl suggested.

  “Where?” Ian asked him.

  “Dunno, mate,” Carl said with a small grin. “Ask the dial.”

  Ian held the dial up and asked, “If the earl has written down the combination to the safe, show us where we might locate it.”

  The dial formed a shadow, which pointed across the room. Ian looked up and saw the earl’s huge mahogany desk directly in line with the shadow. “It says it’s in his desk,” Ian told them. Carl and Theo dashed across the room and began to pull open drawers and search through the earl’s papers. Ian got down off his chair and moved to help them. When he got close, he held the dial right in front of the desk, hoping it would point to a drawer, but instead it pointed directly at the surface. “It’s somewhere in that clutter,” Ian said, motioning to the pile of papers littering the top.

  “Oh!” said Theo. “It will take us hours to sort through all this!”

  Carl gave up rooting through the drawer he’d pulled open and suggested, “Why don’t you go back to the safe, Ian, and when we find a set of numbers that look like they may be a combination, we’ll call them out for you to try.”

  Ian nodded and hurried back to the safe. He waited several minutes while Theo and Ca
rl sifted through the various letters, bits of scrap paper, and newspapers that were heaped on the earl’s desk. “Nothing here looks to me like a combination,” Theo said. Moving a pile of papers to the floor, she squinted at the earl’s calendar blotter. “Maybe he’s written it on here,” she mused.

  Growing impatient, Ian turned back to the safe and muttered, “What could the combination be?” After thinking on it, he came up with a small hunch. He tried the earl’s birthday, which he knew because the date was celebrated every year at the orphanage. “Thirty-first, March, 1902,” he said as he spun the dial to thirty-one, then three, then two. Crossing his fingers, he gently pulled on the handle. Nothing happened. “Blast it!” he muttered. He then tried several combinations of the earl’s birthday, but to no avail. The safe remained sealed tight.

  With a sigh he resigned himself to waiting for Theo or Carl to suggest something when he happened to glance at the sundial. The thinnest of shadows was flashing rapidly on the half-past mark. “Huh?” Ian said, squinting down at the dial, and then, as if an idea blossomed in his mind, he turned the combination to the number thirty. Immediately, the shadow disappeared, then reappeared eight notches down from the twelve o’clock position. Ian quickly turned the lock back to the number eight. Glancing down for a third time at the dial’s surface, he was delighted when the shadow disappeared, then reappeared at the twenty-fifth notch. “Twenty-five,” he sang, and spun the dial of the lock forward to that number. There was a click from inside the safe and Ian gasped. “Oy!” he whispered excitedly to his friends. “I’ve done it! I’ve cracked the combination!”

  Theo and Carl hurried over. “You have?” Carl asked.

  “How’d you do it?”

  Ian showed them the sundial proudly. “The dial pointed me to the numbers,” he explained. “Thirty, eight, twenty-five!”

  “Ian!” Theo gasped. “That’s your birthday! Thirtieth of August, 1925. Oh! And now I know why it said it was written on the earl’s desk! He’s got your birthday marked on his calendar.”