The Shadow Lantern

by Teresa Flavin

  “There’s a false bottom where I found this box holding Corvo’s slides.”

  He showed them an empty silver container with words engraved inside its lid.

  “Looks like Latin,” said Sunni.

  “It is,” said Munro. “And it says something intriguing. The rough translation is ‘Leave the light and travel the shadowlands’.”

  Sunni looked closely at the silver box. “This looks like it holds more than three slides. Are there some missing?”

  “I don’t know,” answered Munro. “But you’re right, they do rattle around a bit in their case.”

  “You didn’t mention any of this in your talk,” said Blaise.

  “Ah no, I didn’t,” Munro agreed. “I’ve been talking with two Corvo experts in Venice and we’ve decided I should keep some information private until they’ve analysed the slides. The Oculus and I will be heading to Venice on Monday, when the festival is over.” He lightly touched an engraved star on the lantern’s body. “I haven’t had the Oculus long and I wouldn’t want someone nicking it.”

  “You’re taking a risk bringing it here then, aren’t you?” Sunni asked.

  “I won’t let anything happen.” Munro glanced towards The Mariner’s Return to Arcadia and went on. “When the managers of Blackhope Tower got wind of the Oculus, they were determined to have it as an attraction this weekend. How could I resist coming to this famous place for a couple of days?”

  Blaise scratched his head. “If you’re keeping the message on that silver box secret, why are you telling us?”

  “You’re not planning to run off with it, are you?” He grinned and took off his top hat. “No, seriously, I have a confession to make.” The smile faded. “Aurora Midnight told me your name, Blaise. And who you are.”

  Sunni could see her friend was struggling to keep his temper.

  “It’s none of her business,” Blaise muttered. “She shouldn’t have said anything. I don’t even know her.”

  “Then I have to apologise again.” Munro laid his top hat on the table, revealing dark slicked-back hair. “I told you about the inscription because I thought you might be able to help decipher it. You probably know more about Fausto Corvo than all the experts in Venice!”

  “Well, I’ve got no clue what that inscription means,” said Blaise shortly.

  Munro put his hands up. “Fair enough, Blaise. It was just a thought.” His gaze shifted to the Mariner’s Chamber door and at first Sunni thought he must have seen another spirit, until she clocked the annoyed look on his face.

  At that moment, the wooden door slammed shut and Sunni could hear the sign outside clattering to the floor.

  “What the—” Munro scrambled to the door and hauled it open. He darted outside and shouted, “Stop right there!”

  Chapter 6

  Sunni and Blaise reached Munro’s side in time to see a dark hooded figure duck out of the long corridor and down into the stairwell. Blaise set off after him, leaping onto the first stone step just as he heard thumping footsteps below, then a clatter and an outcry.

  A woman’s voice wailed, “Watch where you’re going!” and a man called, “Sir! Sir, do not run down the stairs!”

  Blaise wound down to the landing below and came to a halt where an older lady was being helped to her feet by a guard. He bent down to assist them, but the guard gave him a suspicious look.

  “I’m not having any stupid games in here, son,” he said angrily, as he guided the lady to a chair. “No chasing your mates, no—”

  “He’s not my mate and it’s no game, sir! That guy was messing around and I was trying to stop him.”

  “You leave that to us.” The guard growled a description of the hoodie into his two-way radio.

  What’s the point? The creep’s gone. He’ll just pull his hood off and blend in with the crowd. Blaise jogged half-heartedly up the stairs and trudged back to the Mariner’s Chamber.

  Sunni and Munro were waiting outside.

  “Any joy?” she asked.

  “Nope. He was long gone.”

  “Thanks anyway, Blaise,” Munro said. “Your friend told me you think you’ve seen him before.”

  Blaise kicked a stone floor tile with his toe. “I think so, but I might be wrong. It was dark before.”

  “I thought he might have been playing a prank,” said Munro. “It’s the second time I’ve caught him hanging about and he’s run off.”

  “Did he say anything to you before?” asked Blaise.

  “No, he was nosing about at the door. I don’t like it,” said Munro, adjusting his sign in the metal stand. “I’m going to have to keep this door locked whenever there’s a break between shows, even if I’m inside. Better to be on the safe side.”

  “Yeah,” Sunni and Blaise mumbled in unison.

  “Well, you’ll probably want to be on your way. Sorry again.” Munro gave them a slight bow. “Stop by the marquee tomorrow if you want to see my spirit photos.”

  “Wait,” Blaise said quickly. “I’d like to see Corvo’s slides projected again, if you have time.”

  “I would too,” Sunni added.

  Munro took a pocket watch from his waistcoat. “I’ve got plenty of time before the next showing.” He pulled the door firmly shut behind them and said, “If you don’t mind being locked in for a few minutes.”

  “Fine by me,” said Blaise.

  “Me too,” said Sunni. “And by the way, I’m Sunni. If you don’t already know, I’m the girl who went into the painting with Blaise and my stepbrother Dean.”

  “No, I didn’t know.” Munro raised his eyebrows and smiled. “Pleased to meet you, Sunni.” He opened the Oculus’s door, lit the wick and picked up a stack of small wooden squares. “These are Corvo’s glass slides. They have the Roman numerals I, II and III painted on the frames.”

  He took the first one and slid it into the slot in the Oculus’s neck. “Can one of you turn off the lights please?”

  Sunni flicked the switch and the dark wall exploded into colour. Blaise carefully felt his way closer to the projection, fascinated with the scene before him. The slide showed part of a large medieval tapestry with a carved stool on the floor below it. A torch on the wall blazed in the dim space.

  “I’ve been trying to identify where this room could be but it’s impossible,” said Munro. “I guess it’s late sixteenth century because that’s when Corvo lived. I found a stool like that in a book and it’s Italian. The tapestry is older, I think.”

  Blaise edged up to the wall, close to the flickering projection. The jewel-like colours and delicate work stunned him. How had Corvo been able to paint the tapestry’s complex hunting scene onto a small piece of glass?

  “Look at the tapestry, Sunni,” he said. “It’s a little like that one we saw at the Victoria and Albert Museum.” He stepped into the light to get closer. His shadow was hard and black behind him as he pointed at the tapestry. “See the hunting dogs?” he asked, smiling back in Sunni’s direction.

  The light dazzled him and tiny black shapes blinked in front of his eyes like dancing pinpricks. The black shapes multiplied even when he looked away and the blood began to rush to his head. Blaise hadn’t felt this odd since he’d walked the labyrinth and been transported into The Mariner’s Return. He thought he might pass out and yet he was completely solid on his feet, unable to move. He was somehow aware of energy curving and spinning around him, along with the strange sensation that layers of his body were peeling away and flying off into the darkness.

  The feeling lasted only a few seconds. When Blaise opened his eyes, he could not talk. He knew what he wanted to say to Sunni and he lurched forwards to grab her hand. He started to speak, but she wasn’t there.

  He spun round, trying to make sense of where he was, and fell over something low and hard. Struggling to his feet, he gaped at the thing in his hands: a carved wooden stool. Slowly he looked up. Dancing torchlight lit the embroidered tapestry before him. He was inside Corvo’s glass slide.

&nbs
p; “No!” Sunni cried out. “No, not this! Please!”

  This could not be happening. Blaise could not possibly have transformed into dancing particles of light before her eyes – but he had. And those particles had mingled with the light beaming from the Oculus, that fancy tin can on the table. Then she saw what looked like a swarm of fireflies hovering in the projection on the wall, starting to form the shape of a teenage boy. Blaise emerged fully remade, glowing at first around the edges, and stumbled round in the projection as if he had forgotten how to walk. He was working his mouth, saying something as he fell over the stool.

  Munro’s stunned voice came out of the dark nearby. “Oh no, no, no. This isn’t possible. He was standing right there!”

  “And now he’s not,” said Sunni with a catch in her throat. “That lantern has taken him apart and put him back together inside the slide!”

  “I had no idea it could do this!”

  “Fausto Corvo made these slides. That means anything can happen,” she said tersely. “He was a magician who could bring his own paintings to life!”

  “All right, what should I do?” Munro asked. “How do I get him out?”

  “No clue.” There was a chill at Sunni’s back and the faintest whisper of a sound at her ear.

  In the projection Blaise looked around him. His expression was alert but uncertain.

  “I don’t think he can see us,” said Munro. “This is unbelievable.” Sunni heard his fingers drumming on the table. “I’m going to turn the overhead light on.”

  “No! We won’t be able to see him then.” Sunni couldn’t take her eyes off her friend.

  “Okay, okay. Let’s just stay calm and think of what to do next.”

  Blaise was staring at something they could not see, his mouth open in surprise. His lips moved but Sunni had no idea what he was saying.

  “Something’s in there with Blaise,” said Munro. “I think there’s more to this projection than we can see.”

  The whisper came past Sunni’s ear again. Ahhhhh. She was aware of a touch to her jumper, as though a fly had landed on one stitch and sat there, waiting. She flicked at the spot but there was nothing there.

  “This is beyond me,” murmured Munro.

  “Maybe Blaise will see a way to get back…” Sunni said. But how long can we just sit here and watch? The answer came into her head, hazily at first. For as long as the oil lasts. “The oil! How much is left?” She edged closer to the glowing Oculus. The magic lantern gave out more heat than she had expected.

  “I’ll check.” Munro opened the door and squinted inside. “There’s plenty.”

  “But what will happen to Blaise when it’s gone? If the flame goes out?”

  “I won’t let it go out. Don’t worry about that.”

  Blaise was inching towards the edge of the projection. With one more step he would leave it and vanish somewhere they could not see.

  “What are you doing, Blaise?” she nearly screamed. “Stay where we can see you. Don’t go anywhere else!” Again there was a slight depression in Sunni’s jumper, as if a fingertip was pushing the fibres in. She scratched at her shoulder.

  Munro’s voice cut through the gloom. “Sunni, we can’t wait. I’ll have to go in after him and you’ll have to keep watch here.”

  Ahhh. The whisper circled round her ear and she felt a finger of air on her back, then another, and another, until five encircled her left shoulder as if to comfort her. But there was nothing but malice in the feathery touches.

  Sunni’s blood turned to ice and she couldn’t move. She was aware of a slight change in the light but could not lift her head.

  “Sunni!” Munro said sharply.

  She opened her mouth again and tried to make a sound.

  A new feather of air touched her right shoulder. So light, and yet she thought it would go straight through to her flesh. She waited for the next touch and then the next, her mouth hanging slack.

  Ahhh. The whisper circulated around the Mariner’s Chamber like a whistle through bones.

  Sunni could hardly breathe. Something was wrong with the Oculus’s light. Everything was getting darker, like she was gliding into a tunnel. She inched her head sideways. From the corner of her eye, she saw the projection on the wall fading as the shadow lantern dimmed slightly. All she could think about was Blaise. Sunni could imagine him stepping out into cold blackness never to return.

  “Sunni, what is going on?” Munro fumbled with something in the dark.

  Suddenly Sunni spun round, nauseous at the thought of what clung to her back, and battled to dislodge the airy fingers from her shoulders.

  “Get off me!” she shouted. “Leave me alone and go back where you belong!”

  Ahhhh, came the spiteful whisper.

  A small flame burst into life. Munro held his hurricane lamp high and peered worriedly at her.

  “Be very still…” he began in a low voice, his eyes fixed on a spot just above her shoulder.

  “I can’t!” Sunni clawed at her shoulders. “It’s her!”

  Before she could get another word out, the fingers released her and a keening gust of air spiralled round the room. It choked the hurricane lamp’s flame and circled the Oculus, rattling its door.

  “No, spirit!” Munro shouted. “I ask you, please do not interfere with the lantern! A boy’s life is at stake.”

  Ahhhh. The phantom fingers worked the door open, reached inside the lantern and grasped the wick, smothering it until it sputtered into a smoking stump and the chamber went black. Ahhhh. Haaaa. Haaaa.

  The wind subsided and the chamber went silent. Sunni lunged towards the table, colliding with Munro and falling back. “Get the Oculus back on. Please!”

  “Matches, matches,” he murmured.

  Sunni heard the matches roll around in their box as Munro tried to get it open. She groaned with him as he dropped it and they scattered. Her heart racing, she shuffled towards the light switch, but tripped over chairs and hit a wall. She felt her way along the cool plaster surface with her fingertips, cursing every moment the Oculus was unlit.

  Sunni’s ears pricked up. A deep sigh and a scrabbling sound came from the other side of the chamber.

  Something in the dark was sliding itself along the floor towards them.

  Chapter 7

  With a hard clicking sound, electric light flooded the Mariner’s Chamber.

  “Blaise!” Sunni exclaimed, her expression a mix of happiness and relief. She was huddled against the wall, one hand still on the light switch and facing the place where the scraping noise had come from.

  Blaise was sprawled on the tiled floor, trying to turn over and get up, with Lexie the cat sniffing round him. He finally managed to get his mouth to say something. “Uh-huh.”

  “You got out of the slide!” Munro was on his hands and knees, surrounded by scattered matches. “That’s a relief!”

  “I think the projection spat me out,” Blaise said.

  Sunni and Munro were at his side in a flash, propping him up.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “Yeah.” Blaise smiled but he wasn’t sure he was quite himself yet. “It was a close call though. I couldn’t see any way to get out and I had no clue what to do. How did you get me back?”

  “The flame went out and there you were,” said Sunni.

  “Mr Munro!” A gruff male voice called from the other side of the Mariner’s Chamber door. “Is everything all right in there?”

  “Jimmy…” Munro called, exasperation in his voice. “Everything’s fine.”

  “Visitors reported hearing loud voices.”

  “That’s right,” said Munro. “All part of the Oculus events. I’m trying out something new.”

  “I see,” said the security guard.

  “As I told you earlier, Jimmy, some unusual things might happen while I’m here. Best not to worry if you hear a noise or see the odd thing on your security monitor this weekend.”

  “Fair enough. I’ll leave you to it th
en.” The guard’s footsteps faded away down the corridor.

  Munro turned back to Blaise, looking concerned. “Something in the slide spooked you,” he said. “We could see your face but we couldn’t see what it was.”

  “I was just gobsmacked to be in another of Corvo’s magical worlds,” he answered.

  Sunni shook him gently by the elbow. “Are you really all right?”

  Blaise blinked. “Yeah, I’m better now. Did you see what happened to me when I was transported?”

  “How could we not?” she asked. “You started glowing and then you turned into a jumble of blinking lights! It was like your body was short-circuiting and sending off sparks. Then all your sparks just blended in with the light from the Oculus and you reformed inside the projection.”

  “Wow,” Blaise said, examining his hands. “Maybe that’s why my hands and feet are still tingling.”

  “You’re not all right,” said Sunni. “Maybe we should go.”

  “No!” He sat up straighter.

  Munro grasped him by the shoulder. “Come on, let’s get you into a chair.”

  Blaise managed to stand up and walk by himself. “I’m fine,” he said. “Those floor tiles are freezing.”

  “What did you see in there, Blaise?” asked Munro, taking a seat beside him.

  “I’m not a hundred per cent sure, but I know one thing. The projection is alive. The stool’s real, the flame in the torch – all of it.”

  “Any idea where you were?” asked Munro, a rapt look on his face. “I’d love to know that.”

  Blaise exchanged a cautious look with Sunni. He knew she must be bursting with questions and he wished Munro wasn’t there so he could tell her exactly what he’d seen.

  “Just a room in a fancy house,” he said. “I didn’t see any more of the place than that.”

  “But you looked like you were about to go exploring,” said Sunni. “You were almost at the edge of the projection and I thought you were going to vanish!”