May ran to the bed and wrapped her arms around Pumpkin’s neck. He rolled his eyes at her, pulled away, and said, “Where have you been?”
“Where have I been?” she asked, disbelieving. “What are you doing here?”
Pumpkin shrugged. “Lucius rescued me from the wave, and I’ve just been here reading these magazines.” He waved one titled Ms. Zombie. Next to him sat the knapsack May had dropped in the caves.
She looked at Lucius, who continued grinning. “Pumpkin and I have been getting to know each other. I went and got your bag for you.”
“But—”
“Do you like my room?”
May looked around. The room was very old-fashioned. She felt herself getting shy now. “Yes, it’s nice.”
“You two will stay and play with me for a while, won’t you?” He looked from one to the other. “Nobody ever comes to visit.”
May looked at Pumpkin, who nodded at her eagerly, knocking his legs against the bed. Personally she didn’t think she liked the way Lucius played.
“Um, we can’t stay.”
Lucius frowned. “Oh?”
“Lucius,” May said gently. “I’m in danger. I’m trying to get to a place called Nine Knaves Grotto, to find a certain specter, and I have to get there without being seen.”
Lucius frowned, concerned. “You’re hiding?”
“Yes, I’m hiding, but I can’t hide forever. I need to get out of here.” Her voice came out even and calm, but inside she feared that she would say the wrong thing, and Lucius would zip away.
Lucius nodded sympathetically, however, suddenly seeming wiser and sadder than the mischievous boy he’d been a few moments before. He looked over both shoulders, then leaned toward her, meeting her brown eyes with his blue. “I’m hiding too.”
“What are you hiding from?” May asked, blushing at being so close to him.
Lucius’s eyes widened, and he backed up against the wall behind him, his light dimming. He sank down against the wall, putting his hands up in front of his eyes. “No, please!”
“Lucius?” May hurried and knelt down beside him. “Lucius?”
He kept his eyes buried in his hands for several seconds. But then suddenly, he looked up at her. His blue eyes were as clear and untroubled as a calm Caribbean Sea.
“Where did you say you needed to go?”
May hesitated, confused. “Nine Knaves Grotto.”
A huge, delighted grin spread itself across Lucius’s face, the fear completely disappearing. “Oh, that’s easy. I’ll take you there.”
With that, he leaped up, his glow becoming so bright that both May and Pumpkin had to shield their eyes again.
“Oh, sorry,” he said, dimming to a comfortable level.
He led them through several tunnels that seemed to go deeper into the Catacombs. Every few minutes a sound would be heard from down one of the caverns—muffled whispers, laughter.
“Don’t worry,” Lucius threw over his shoulder cheerily, “they’ll leave you alone as long as you’re with me. They all know you’re here, of course. We know everything that happens in the caves.”
Pumpkin and May shared a worried glance. “Excuse me, Lucius, but . . . who are they?”
“The other boys,” Lucius said, turning right and disappearing from sight for a moment, until May and Pumpkin turned after him. “They’re all hiding like I am. I hope you’ll forgive me for the pranks,” he said honestly, glancing back at May. He seemed to be a different boy once again—this one sincere, honest, handsome. “We get so bored, you know. It’s lonely in the caves, even with the others.”
“You never leave?” May asked, amazed.
“Oh, no,” Lucius said. “Too dangerous out there.” He looked at her sadly. “I do miss the outside, though. I haven’t seen much of the Ever After. I found this place on my way south after I died, and stayed. I haven’t been out since.”
“But why is the outside so dangerous for you?”
Lucius looked at her as if she’d asked the most obvious question in the world. “Well, he might get me.”
Again Pumpkin and May exchanged a glance.
“Who?”
Lucius looked all around, then continued to drift on ahead of them. He seemed to have forgotten the question, or ignored it on purpose. “We’re almost there.”
He floated several feet ahead, where the ground began to rise. Soon they were climbing, not steeply, but steadily.
May watched his back sympathetically, thinking how horrible a life in the caves must be. May didn’t know what the rest of this world was like, but she couldn’t imagine being happy without seeing the sky, without a mom or a cat, just a bunch of boys playing games.
Lucius zipped farther ahead, disappearing around a bend. He let them catch up to him a few minutes later. “How old are you?” he asked. “Ten,” May answered. “Why?”
“Oh. I’m thirteen. At least, that’s the age I was when I died.” Lucius looked at her thoughtfully. “Are there other girls like you out there? Ones a bit older?” he asked, then bit his lip and blushed. May blushed back.
“I don’t know,” she answered. “I’m sort of new.”
“Oh, right.” Lucius nodded.
He hurried on ahead of them again, glowing their way through the darkness.
As soon as he was a safe distance away, Pumpkin leaned toward May and whispered in a dramatic, solemn way, “I think I understand. About Lucius.”
“What do you mean?”
“Luminous boys,” Pumpkin whispered. “Have you heard of them?” He widened his eyes at her for effect.
May shook her head. Of course she hadn’t. The path had gotten steeper, and they were no longer on sand but on something harder. May turned to catch Pumpkin as he tripped over an outcropping of rock in their path, then continued.
“Oh, yes, that’s got to be it. It makes sense. Hiding in the caves. Arista used to talk about them. . . . They spend Eternity living in fear. Very sad, really. Can you imagine?” Pumpkin shook his head. “Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
May yanked at his ragged sleeve.
“Pumpkin? What is it you were going to tell me? About Lucius?”
Pumpkin drew the moment out as long as he could, smoothing his tuft of hair and thrusting his chin in the air knowledgeably. “Oh. Luminous boys are a very particular kind of specter. They all flock together and stay in very tight spaces, hiding because of what happened to them when they were alive.” He stuck a pinky in between his lips, looking stricken.
“Well,” May whispered impatiently, “what happened to them?”
Pumpkin frowned, his oval eyes huge. “Luminous boys are boys who were taken by the Bogey in their sleep. Sucked into the Ever After through their nightmares.”
Just then Lucius zipped back to check on them, giving May a dazzling, sweet smile. May rubbed at the goose bumps along her arms as he squinted at her. “Say, you’re not like any spirits I’ve met,” Lucius said. “You move differently, and—”
May gulped, then forced a smile back on her face and interrupted him. “I’m new,” she repeated. “Oh, look there.” She pointed up ahead.
The light down the tunnel had begun to change. It was much more dim and gray than Lucius’s light.
“Oh, yes,” Lucius said, leading them farther and finally pointing one arm toward a round opening up ahead. “That’s the way to the grotto.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Nine Knaves Grotto
A circle of sky gaped before them, full of zipping stars. May hurried past Pumpkin and burst into the open air. “Whew!”
They were about halfway up one of the cliffs. Below and to the right was the Dead Sea. May breathed in the open air gratefully. When Pumpkin caught up, he did the same.
“It’s down there,” Lucius said, still pointing.
May scanned all along the shore, which wasn’t a shore anymore but a collection of cliffs butting up against the water’s edge.
I don’t see anything but water.”
“If you
stare long enough, you will. It’s there,” he pointed, “in that little curve in the rocks. It’s hidden.”
May stared down hard at the curve he’d indicated. She stared for several seconds, so long that her eyes started to lose focus.
And that’s when she saw it.
At the base of that curve, nestled in under the shadow of the rocks, was a tiny walled town built on a network of planks and bridges. It looked like the layers of a cake, with small square houses sitting almost on top of one another, reaching from the walkways and canals toward the cliffs. Its seaside side clung to the water, looking as if it might lean forward to peer into the waves and fall in. The wall itself was surrounded by a boardwalk and interrupted only by a tall, open gate. But it all blended so well with the shapes of its surroundings that when May looked away, then looked back, it took her a second to pick it out again.
“Gosh, it’s practically invisible!”
“That’s the way they like it,” Lucius said. “Few spirits even know it’s here. Knaves are like that. They’re a secretive bunch.”
May nodded. They must be, to live in such a dangerous spot—just inches above the deadly water of the Dead Sea.
“I’m sad to see you go,” Lucius said gravely, interrupting her train of thought. His long handsome eyelashes fluttered at May.
“You’re not coming any farther?” She searched the cliff edge. “But how will we get down?”
“There,” Lucius said matter-of-factly, pointing to a tiny indent in the rock, which May now could see was a path.
She walked over to its edge. It was just enough room for one person to stand on, if she hugged her stomach against the rock. “Really? This is the only way?”
Lucius nodded. He stuck out his hand, and May took it, reluctantly. “There’s a girl. It was nice to meet you. Good luck, May Bird.”
He started to turn away. May and Pumpkin looked at each other. Poor, lonely soul, May thought. Pumpkin’s eyes said he felt sorry for Lucius too.
“Wait.” She threw out her hand to touch him, but he turned around first.
May bit her lip. “Won’t you come with us? Just to the grotto? Just to get out of the caves for a little while?”
Lucius looked back at the cave, then at her. “Oh, no. I can’t. Really. He might see me.”
“But . . . you can turn around whenever you want. And it’s not very far. . . . If you could just take us to the edge of town . . . Please?” May didn’t want to put Lucius in danger. But she also didn’t want him to spend the rest of Eternity hiding in a cave.
Lucius looked bashful. “You mean, you’d like for me to come?”
May smiled sincerely. “Very much.”
Lucius gazed down at the grotto. “I suppose I can venture down to the water with you. Maybe I’ll even take you to the gates,” he said proudly.
With Lucius leading the way, May and Pumpkin grinned at each other. Pumpkin insisted on being in the middle as they made their way down the cliff, zigzagging back and forth along the face of the rock. Several times May lost sight of the town below, and thought for a minute that there must be some other path, and that they were going the wrong way. But finally it came into view again, and a few minutes later they reached a small platform of rock that marked the end of the trail.
A finger of the sea stretched between the platform, where May and the others stood, and the wall of the grotto. Dotting the black oily water that separated them from the grotto were many large, smooth rocks, lined up in staggered rows.
“I guess those are stepping stones?”
“I’m not going out there,” Pumpkin said. “No, uh-uh. I’ll stay here and wait for you.”
“Oh, it’ll be easy.” Lucius zipped right up to the side of the platform, his feet poking just over the edge. Then he floated onto the first rock. “See?”
May and Pumpkin stared at the seawater. It lapped at the sides of the stone eagerly. “What if it’s . . . boobytrapped, or something?” May asked.
“Oh, don’t be scaredies. Come on.”
The next stone over was very close to the first. Lucius floated onto that one quickly, his arms out for balance, then looked over his shoulder.
“Well, I guess.” May stepped onto the first stone, then waited to step onto the second until Lucius left it for the third.
He skimmed across the stones ahead of her, finally floating triumphantly onto the wooden boardwalk that edged the wall of the grotto. May followed, taking Lucius’ icy hand as he offered it to help her onto the planks. “That was easy,” May said breathlessly, flushed with pleasure. Lucius beamed.
He let go of her hand and floated ahead along the wall. Meanwhile, May gestured at Pumpkin, who still hovered on the opposite side of the water, shaking his head.
“Pumpkin, really, it’s fine.”
Pumpkin darted a look at the water, then one at May. He groaned. And then he began to scurry across.
By the time he floated off the last stone, Lucius had drifted back to them. His big, worried eyes filled May with alarm.
“What’s wrong?”
“Come look.”
Pumpkin, May, and Lucius approached the gate. The main walk that ran through the grotto was completely empty. Along each side of it, the square houses that sat one atop the other like layers of cake lay in various stages of disrepair: doors hanging off hinges, windows covered in spider webs, old pieces of furniture lying forlorn and alone on balconies. Overhead, clotheslines holding curious sacks of liquid dangled up and down the walkways, and above their heads, the same sacks hung from the top of the gate. Now that May thought about it, it was strange that it should be standing wide open. And that it had been so easy to get this close.
She took in the scene before her, letting it sink in. There wasn’t a soul to be seen anywhere. The town was deserted.
The companions entered the gate cautiously, peering this way and that for any sign of movement. May’s feet thudded hollowly along the boardwalk. Through the slats of the walkway she could see the sinister blackness of the seawater, waving back and forth beneath them.
“Ohhh,” Pumpkin groaned, drifting slightly behind the other two and peering this way and that fretfully. He looked like he might turn and head for the hills at any moment. “I think I’ll wait outside.”
“It’s fine, Pumpkin. Everyone’s gone,” Lucius chirped.
But May wasn’t so sure that meant everything was fine. “If John the Jibber is gone, we’ve come a long way for nothing.”
They crisscrossed the grotto three times, weaving up and down different bridges and alleys. Among the houses were several other buildings. May read the signs: N. K. G. SCHOOL OF THIEVERY AND PICKPOCKETING with a banner beneath that said ENROLL NOW FOR SPRING!; AL CAPONE’S ACADEMY FOR THE MUSICALLY GIFTED; HAVE A NICE KNIFE, which displayed all sorts of old daggers and swords in its window; THE REPENTANT THIEVES CENTER FOR CHARITY.
Each time they reached the wall that surrounded the town, they turned and tried a different route. Everywhere the walkway was deserted.
May stood and rested her back against the wall, thinking.
What had happened to all the residents of the grotto? Had they fallen into the water? That wasn’t likely. Had something even worse happened? Then May thought about the ghouls back in the Catacombs.
Had something come for the residents of the grotto?
May peered at the space in front of her feet. The walk shook just slightly, as if someone nearby was walking on it.
May looked up. The Repentant Thieves Center for Charity stood just opposite her.
May walked up to the door, a tingle beginning at the base of her neck. She peered at a glowing picture of a beautiful child with huge brown eyes blinking at her. “‘This poor, wretched orphan needs your help,’” she read from the poster. “Oh, I don’t know,” she muttered, backing away, ignoring the tingle.
“What’s that, May?” Lucius asked earnestly.
“Nothing, I just . . .” May turned back to look at the sign again. “Gh
osts can’t change . . .,” she muttered to herself. She stepped forward, put her hand on the door handle, and pulled.
Instead of opening onto the inside of a building, the door opened onto another walkway, one that was much cleaner and newer and also filled with little houses. Pumpkin and Lucius had come up behind her, and they all peered in. May led them forward.
“Good job, May,” Lucius said, patting her back. After a few sharp corners, they came to an open space.
Here the boardwalk formed an octagon, dotted in the center by a great fountain. In it was a statue of a man in a green hat, green tunic, and tights.
May smiled. “That’s Robin Hood.” On his back he held a quiver of arrows, and out of the tip of each arrow arched a black stream of seawater.
Just beyond the fountain was a large building with a sign dangling crookedly from the sloped roof. In glowing letters it read HANGMAN’S NOOSE TOWN HALL. They stepped in through the doors and were immediately overpowered by a smell that was both stale and sour.
“Ech!” They all put their hands up to their noses at the same moment.
May took in the scene. Big stone rafters crisscrossed the roof, and from them hung more giant sacks of liquid. A bar ran along one side, with hundreds of gleaming silver chalices hanging from tiny looped hooks above it. There must have been at least a hundred tables scattered across the floor in various states of disarray, with chairs sitting straight up, or lying on their sides, or broken and smashed on the floor.
Graffiti had been carved into the walls. May read some of the phrases:
“Always be prepared to lie.”
“Always watch for seawater.”
“Keep your friends close and your enemies at knifepoint.”
Then a fourth one caught May’s eye:
“John the Jibber is a fibber.”
May put her finger on the words for the others to look. “At least we know John the Jibber was here.”
Below it there was a tiny, jagged carving of a tree, with eyes peering through the leaves. May gasped. Then a movement to her right distracted her.
May Bird and the Ever After Page 14
