‘Hello,’ said the Professor. ‘You must be Isabella.’
The girl nodded. She smiled politely as she delivered them each a spoon.
Anna tried to give the girl her nicest smile. If she and Max had someone their own age to play with, then their stay in the inn might not be so bad after all.
‘Alo,’ she said carefully. She hoped that she had said it right.
The girl looked at her shyly. ‘Alo,’ she said. Then she ran back through the kitchen and disappeared.
Mrs Dalca was still watching them.
‘Poftâ bunâ!’ she said in her crackly voice. Anna could tell from the way she said it that she meant dig in!
The soup-stew was a murky green colour, and the bowls were steaming ferociously. The Professor scooped up a spoonful and blew on it carefully before slipping it into his mouth.
‘Delicious!’ he proclaimed.
According to the Professor, most things were delicious, including every type of vegetable. Max stirred his own bowl doubtfully, his nose still wrinkled.
‘I think it might be poisonous,’ he said.
‘Don’t be silly,’ said the Professor. ‘Eat it up.’
Anna bravely picked up her spoon. She hoped the other girl might try to warn her if the meal was dangerous, but she could see no sign of her. She dipped the spoon into the soup and took a very small sip.
The soup was not delicious, but it didn’t taste poisonous either. The flavours were incredibly strong, like all the things Anna had smelt in the air: herby tastes that fizzed across her tongue and burned the back of her throat. She choked a little bit as she swallowed, surprised by the pepperiness.
Max’s eyes widened. ‘It is poisonous,’ he said.
‘No,’ spluttered Anna. ‘It’s just a bit hot.’
But Max could not be convinced. When the Professor left the table to bring in their bags, Max quickly carried his bowl over to one of the purple-flower pot plants. The liquid bubbled sluggishly as he poured it all away.
‘All done!’ he said cheekily.
Anna rolled her eyes.
After the lunch dishes had been cleared away, Mrs Dalca showed them to their rooms. Anna and Max were sharing a bedroom at the very back of the inn, with two small beds and a rickety old wardrobe. A startled mouse ran into a hole as they walked in.
‘Excellent,’ said Anna sarcastically.
The Professor put their suitcases on the floor and walked over to the window. Behind the inn stood a shed that might have been a henhouse; beyond that there was a small, grassy field, which separated the inn from the forest. The window pane was streaked with water. It did not look like the weather was improving.
‘You’ll have a great view of the mountains once this rain clears,’ he said. ‘The Romanian countryside is supposed to be very beautiful.’
‘Does it always rain this much?’ asked Anna.
‘I’m not sure. Maybe you could ask Mrs Dalca.’ The Professor knelt down so he could look the children in the eye. ‘I’m going to have to leave now. Can I trust you to behave?’
‘Yes,’ said Anna.
‘Yes,’ said Max.
‘Good,’ said the Professor. He hugged them together firmly. ‘And if she is a witch,’ he whispered, ‘just push her into the oven.’
The children giggled.
3
HIDDEN THINGS
The children waved at the professor as he drove away, the car vanishing almost immediately into the shadows of the forest. Back in their room, Anna unpacked her suitcase. She had brought three books of fairy tales on the trip, and she stood them all up on the bedside table between two candlesticks. The covers were a little battered after years of being constantly read and re-read, but their presence seemed to brighten up the room.
‘There could be secret passages in an old hotel like this,’ said Max.
Max’s unpacking had consisted of finding his stash of emergency lollies. He popped a jelly baby in his mouth and looked thoughtfully around the bedroom.
‘Let’s look in the wardrobe. Sometimes they have magic worlds in them,’ he said.
Anna knew it wasn’t very likely, but she thought exploring might be a fun way to pass the time. They walked to the wardrobe together. Max grabbed the handle.
‘Ready?’ he asked.
‘Ready.’
Max threw open the door. A whirlwind of dust rushed into their faces, causing both children to cough and splutter. And then:
‘Nothing,’ said Max, disappointed. The wardrobe was empty.
‘Hang on,’ said Anna. She took a step back and stood on tiptoes, stretching her neck as far as it would go. ‘I think there’s something on top of the cupboard.’
Max climbed onto his bed. He jumped up and down on the mattress, trying to get a better look.
‘There is something,’ he said. ‘If you lift me up then I might be able to grab it.’
‘Okay,’ said Anna. Max jumped off the bed. Anna grabbed him under the arms and lifted him above her head, trying to hold him steady as he poked his hands over the top of the wardrobe.
‘Got it!’ said Max.
Anna dropped her brother down. Whatever he was holding on to slid after him, getting bigger and bigger as it unravelled from its hiding place. Suddenly it was enormous, falling over them in a cloud of dust and darkness. It blocked the light completely.
‘Get it off me!’ yelled Max.
Anna was still choking on dust. She grabbed a fistful of the mystery object and tugged it away from her body. She could tell by touching it that it was made of fabric.
Max scrambled along the floor to escape. Once free, he turned to look at what Anna was holding.
‘Oh,’ he said. ‘It’s just a blanket.’
Anna examined the thing in her hand. It did look like a blanket, but it also seemed slightly too long, and slightly too narrow. The colours were wrong, too. The blankets on their beds were brown and drab. This material was a rich, deep blue, with an area in the middle that was almost golden.
‘I think it might be something else,’ she said. ‘Help me straighten it out.’
The children spread the not-blanket across the floor, straightening the fabric until it was smooth. They stood up to admire their work, puzzling over the long, thin rectangle.
‘It’s a banner,’ said Anna at last. ‘Like the kind they hang in a castle.’
Anna and Max stared at the banner together. It looked old – far older than anything else they had seen in the inn so far. At its centre was a golden eagle, its wings spread majestically on either side of its body. The bird’s talons were wrapped around a crescent moon, as if the eagle was trying to steal it from the evening sky.
‘Do you think this is treasure?’ asked Max.
‘I … don’t know,’ said Anna. She hadn’t been expecting to find anything like this. ‘I guess it might be treasure to the person who hid it.’
‘Let’s look for more things,’ said Max. He lowered himself to the ground and rolled along the floor. A second later he had disappeared beneath Anna’s bed.
But Anna hadn’t finished looking at the banner. She stared curiously at the eagle’s yellow eye, which was wicked and curved. She half expected it to blink at her.
‘Hey, Anna!’ called Max excitedly. ‘There’s something under here!’
Anna was about to ask what it was when she heard footsteps in the corridor outside. Without thinking, she grabbed the banner and bundled it into her arms. She didn’t know why, but for some reason she didn’t want to be caught looking at it.
‘Someone’s coming,’ she hissed to Max. ‘Get out of there, quick!’
There was a noise from under the bed that sounded as if Max had bumped his head. Anna spun around to the wardrobe and stuffed the banner inside. She had just turned back around when the bedroom door swung open with a loud BANG.
Mrs Dalca stood in the doorway. Her eyes were narrowed.
‘Come with me,’ she said.
Anna wasn’t ready to leave their dis
coveries behind. ‘We’d like to stay here, please,’ she said in her politest voice.
Mrs Dalca shook her head. ‘Too cold,’ she croaked. ‘Come to the fire.’
She said it firmly, the way that teachers spoke when they were not in the mood to be argued with. Anna saw that they were not going to have any choice in the matter. The old woman led them into the corridor, shutting the bedroom door firmly behind them. Anna realised too late that she had forgotten to grab one of her books.
They returned to the main room of the inn. The view through the windows was so misty and dark that it was beginning to feel like the middle of the night. In spite of herself, Anna felt glad to be closer to the fire.
Mrs Dalca took a seat in the corner of the room and picked up a bundle of knitting. She began to weave with her hands, looping the wool around until it looked like her fingers were tied up with knots. Anna had never seen someone knit without needles. She wasn’t sure what the old woman was making, but the wool was pure black, and Anna couldn’t shake the feeling that this might be how witches made their clothes.
‘Isabella!’ called the old woman suddenly. ‘Joc!’
The girl with the scar on her cheek appeared again from a side room. She walked bravely up to the siblings and gave them a friendly smile.
‘Alo,’ she said. ‘My name is Isabella.’
‘Hi,’ said Anna. She was surprised to hear that the girl spoke English very well. ‘My name is Anna, and this is Max.’
Max gave Isabella a tentative wave. Anna found herself staring at the mark on the girl’s cheek. It was shiny and white, just like how the real moon looked on a clear evening.
‘I like your scar,’ she said boldly.
‘Thanks,’ said Isabella. ‘I got it from falling out of a tree. I was trying to get all the way to the top, but one of the branches snapped, and I got scratched on the way down.’ She ran a finger over her cheek, suddenly looking rather shy. ‘I like it, though. It’s like a present from the forest.’
Anna smiled encouragingly. She took off her shoe to expose one of her own scars: a long, snaky line that curved along the side of her foot.
‘I got this one in a lake,’ she said. ‘A branch had fallen in, and I kicked it while I was swimming over the top of it.’
‘That’s a good one,’ said Isabella. She giggled. ‘Maybe it was a friend of the branch that got me.’
Anna laughed too. She decided that she quite liked Isabella.
‘Would you like to play a game?’ asked Isabella. ‘Granny Dalca won’t mind, as long as she sees us all near the fire every couple of minutes.’
‘Yes, please,’ said Anna. She hadn’t realised Mrs Dalca was the girl’s grandmother. ‘What do you want to play?’
‘My favourite is hide-and-seek,’ said Isabella. ‘But I know all the best places now, so it might be a bit unfair.’
‘I’m very good at hide-and-seek,’ piped up Max. ‘I bet I could find you.’
Isabella grinned. ‘Okay. You count to thirty, and me and Anna will hide. Whoever gets found first has to help find the other one.’
‘Got it.’ Max covered his eyes. ‘One!’ he said. ‘Two!’
The girls fled. Anna saw that the inn was full of good hiding places. There were cupboards for blankets in the hallway that a child could wriggle into, as well as large wardrobes in most of the bedrooms. Isabella darted away before Anna could see where she was going; Anna found herself at the very end of the hall, facing the only door that was further back than her own bedroom.
‘Thirty!’ announced Max.
Anna hastily grabbed the handle. It was a heavy door, with hinges that groaned at the slightest movement. With a strong push she was just able to open the door wide enough for a small girl to pass through. She slipped into the room beyond.
Her eyes struggled to adapt to the gloomy half-light. It seemed that the room was being used for storage. The floor was covered with cardboard boxes and wooden crates, and a row of old cabinets lined one of the walls. Anna picked her way towards the largest cabinet and climbed inside, glad to have found a hiding place.
She sat down and closed the door, and everything went black.
There was a large keyhole in the cabinet door. Anna placed her eye gently against the gap, trying her hardest not to make any noise. Max would sometimes peek during hide-and-seek when he was supposed to have his eyes closed. Had he seen which way she had run?
A whole minute went by. Anna looked glumly at the window on the opposite side of the room. It might have been a trick of the light, but it looked like the rain was coming down less fiercely against the glass, although it was beating as loudly as ever on the roof. For a while Anna listened to the rain, trying to enjoy its strange rhythm.
Then she heard the sound of groaning hinges.
Anna took a deep breath and held it, determined not to make a sound. She couldn’t see the main door through the keyhole, but she was sure that someone was standing in the doorway, listening. She fixed her eye on the window, as still as a statue.
And so, when a flash of lightning tore through the sky only a second later, Anna saw something she was not meant to see. She saw the tall figure standing outside the window, its mouth wide open, its white eyes burning like fire.
And then the cabinet door swung open.
4
FORBIDDEN WORDS
‘Found you!’ said max. he beamed down at Anna proudly.
Anna felt like her blood had turned to ice. She pointed at the window, her finger shaking.
‘Did you see that?’
Max glanced at the window. ‘It was just lightning,’ he said.
Anna had a sudden sense of deja vu. Hadn’t they had this conversation before?
‘That thing you saw in the forest,’ she said slowly. ‘The thing the Professor said was a bear. What did it look like?’
Max shrugged. ‘It was like a person,’ he said. ‘Except their eyes were white. A bright, shining white.’
Anna knew exactly what he meant. She’d looked into those eyes.
They’d been staring right at her.
‘Something’s wrong with this place,’ she said. She climbed out of the cabinet, holding on to Max’s arm. ‘We need to get away. We need to find the Professor, and then we need to leave.’
Max tried to give his sister an encouraging smile. ‘It’s not that bad here. Dad will be back soon.’
Anna grabbed Max’s shoulders. ‘I saw it. I saw what you saw. It was standing right there, looking in. It was watching us.’
Max turned to face the window. The forest was dark again, and the rain was pattering against the glass like normal. Whatever had been there was gone.
‘Maybe it was just a bear,’ he said doubtfully.
‘It wasn’t a bear,’ said Anna. ‘You were right. It was …’ She stopped to think. If it wasn’t a bear, what was it? It had been very tall and very thin, with a face so pale that it was almost like a phantom. It hadn’t looked entirely human, but it also hadn’t looked like any animal Anna had seen before. There was only one thing she was sure of: it was not their friend.
‘It doesn’t matter what it was,’ she said. ‘We need to get out of here.’ She squeezed Max’s shoulders. His face was scrunched up tightly, a sign that he was thinking hard. Anna sighed. Ever since Max had turned eight he’d stopped listening to her as much as he used to, and the two of them had been fighting more than ever before. Would he realise how important this was?
‘Okay.’ Max nodded. ‘Let’s call Dad.’
Anna hugged him in relief.
The children held hands as they walked out into the hallway, almost breaking into a run as they approached the main room. Mrs Dalca was still knitting in the corner, weaving her fingers nimbly through the ever-growing tangle of black yarn. It looked like she was holding a living shadow.
‘Excuse me,’ said Anna. ‘Is there a telephone we can use?’
Mrs Dalca looked up at them. Her fingers kept moving.
‘Nu,’ she said. �
�There is no phone.’
‘Oh.’ Anna’s voice faltered a little. ‘We would like to see the Professor. Can you take us to him?’
Mrs Dalca shook her head.
‘It will soon be night,’ she said. ‘We will stay here.’
Anna looked closely at Mrs Dalca. Something had changed in the old woman’s face when she had said the word night. It wasn’t a look that Anna liked.
There was a coughing noise behind them, and the children jumped. They turned and saw that Isabella had walked into the room.
‘Have you given up?’ she asked brightly. ‘I told you, I’m very good at hiding.’
Anna didn’t know what to say. Max was standing very stiffly beside her, his face scrunched up once more. Anna could guess what he was thinking. If Mrs Dalca wanted to keep them trapped inside the inn, then there might be a chance that Isabella – her granddaughter – was helping her with the plan. Could the girl be trusted? They had no way of knowing for sure.
‘Isabella!’ interrupted Mrs Dalca. ‘Avem nevoie de lemn. Focul se stinge.’
Anna wished that she understood Romanian. Isabella listened closely, and when the old woman had finished speaking she nodded in agreement.
‘Would you like to come outside with me?’ she asked. ‘I’m just going round the back of the house, to the woodpile.’
‘No thanks,’ blurted Anna. She looked down at Max, desperately trying to think of an excuse. ‘Max is getting a cold,’ she lied. ‘We’d better stay inside so it doesn’t get any worse.’
Max sniffed helpfully.
‘Adu usturoi,’ croaked Mrs Dalca.
‘Oh. All right then,’ said Isabella to Anna. ‘I’ll see you in a minute.’
The siblings watched in silence as the girl pulled on a pair of gumboots and wrapped a thick black scarf around her neck. She opened the inn door without looking back at them, and a moment later she was gone. The way she ignored them made Anna feel guilty.
‘What will we do now?’ whispered Max.
The Vampire Knife Page 2
