“You’re our brains, and our heart, and our courage,” Scarlet told her. “Muriel’s the one who’s nothing. She’s just an act. A mask.”
Ebony stood up then. “And so am I.”
Scarlet turned to her. “Ebony, I—”
“No,” she said, waving my twin away. “This whole thing is half my fault.” She looked at our friend, whose face was crumpled with crying. “I’m so sorry, Ariadne, I really am. I didn’t even know you. I was so busy being selfish and thinking about my own life that I got swept up in this whole deception.” She came closer and put her hands gently on the rope before closing her eyes. “I might as well have tied you up myself. I don’t know what I was thinking. You’re none of the things Muriel said you were. You’re clearly so much more.”
Ariadne bit her lip. Her sobs had slowed to a halt. “Do you mean it?”
“We all mean it,” I said. Scarlet threw her arms round our friend and I joined in. Ebony stood looking a little uncomfortable for a moment before she joined in too. Ariadne gave a quiet, mouse-like laugh.
We moved back to stop her running out of air. “Remember our first day at Rookwood, when you cried in the toilets because you thought people might be staring at you? Look how far you’ve come.”
“All the way to a dusty damp crypt,” she said, but there was a cheeky glint in her sadness and Scarlet immediately started to laugh. Soon we all did, though I deeply wished we were laughing for a better reason. But if we didn’t laugh, well …
It didn’t bear consideration. I had to get everyone thinking. “The only way we’re going to get out of here alive is if we put all of our strengths together,” I said.
Scarlet nodded.
I felt a sharp pain in my chest as I stared at my sister and my best friend, trapped down here forever. This may have been someone’s tomb, but I didn’t want it to be ours.
Ariadne took a deep, shaky breath. I could see a shimmer returning to her eyes. “Ivy,” she said, “can you take a closer look at the gates?”
I went over and shook the bars of our iron prison. They were quite solid.
“C-can you look at the lock? Does it seem simple?” Ariadne said, her voice gradually regaining its steadiness.
“Yes,” I said. “I think so.” It was a regular keyhole and the gates were very old.
Now our friend’s face brightened. “I think I might be able to pick it!” Of course! Ariadne had always been skilled at lock-picking, thanks to a governess who would lock her in cupboards. “Oh,” she said. “But how am I going to get out of this?” She twitched her tied-up hands.
Ebony tipped her head on one side. “I think I can do it,” she said. “Papa used to do some escapology. He taught me a lot of knots.” She knelt down on the stone floor of the crypt and peered more closely at the ropes. “Hmm. Muriel was good at these. But … I think I’m better.” She began pulling at various bits of the rope, her hands working quickly. And after a few different tugs, I could see the knot getting slacker.
“It’s working!” Scarlet cried.
Seconds later, with one final pull, the knot slid out and the rope coiled to the floor like a dead snake.
Ariadne shook her hands out, her wrists burnt red. “Thank you!” she said to Ebony.
“It was the least I could do,” Ebony said with a shrug.
Once Ariadne had the feeling back in her hands, Scarlet led her to the gates. “Come on, Ariadne,” she said. “You can do this! We believe in you!”
Ariadne grinned nervously. She began patting at her hair round her lion mask, which was still perched on top of her head. “I know I used some pins to keep this on … aha!”
I watched as she pulled out a couple and inserted them into the lock. Scarlet started pacing and I knew what she was thinking. If this doesn’t work … we’re done for. I started composing prayers in my head, to anyone who would listen.
I wasn’t sure how long it took, but it felt like an age. And then, suddenly, we heard …
Click.
“Yes!” Ebony said, clapping. “You did it!”
Ariadne pushed at the gates and they swung open.
Scarlet ran over and hugged her. “See? We needed you.”
Ariadne said nothing, but her cheeks flushed.
“Come on!” Scarlet ran up the stone steps and the rest of us swiftly followed her.
But I began to realise that something was wrong. I could see no moonlight above us. And that meant …
“The doors are shut!” Scarlet shouted.
I leant back against the damp wall, feeling the rough stone beneath my fingers. I should have known that Muriel wouldn’t let us get away that easily.
“Oh no,” Ariadne whispered.
Scarlet pushed on the doors, threw all her weight into it, but they didn’t budge. I went up and stood beside her on the narrow steps and we both tried pushing together. It was no use. Muriel must have wedged them shut.
“It’s probably a bad time to admit this,” I heard Ebony say, “but I’m actually afraid of the dark.”
“I’m not fond of it either,” Scarlet retorted a little snappily. “Now what—”
But an idea was forming in my mind. “Then maybe what we need is some light.”
I squeezed past the others and dashed back down the steps. And there, on the wall of the crypt, was what I was looking for. The flaming torch, propped in an iron holder where Muriel had left it.
I lifted it out. It was fairly weighty and the heat made me flinch for a second. “Please stay lit,” I begged it. Carefully, I made my way back up the steps.
When Scarlet saw me, her face paled. “Oh no,” she said. “I had enough of fire last year.”
“I think this will work,” I insisted, looking up at the ancient doors. “If I can get them to light …” I knew it had been a dry day and that the All Hallows’ Eve bonfire had caught easily. It was our only hope.
Ariadne bit her lip. “That doesn’t look safe,” she said.
“Everyone stand clear, then. In fact, you all go back down. I’ll light it and then as soon as it seems to be going, I’ll run after you.”
“Ivy …” Scarlet warned. It was usually my twin who put herself in danger. I don’t think she liked the idea of me doing it. But it was what had to be done.
“I’ll be fine,” I insisted and hoped I was telling the truth. The doors were set in stone, and the crypt was entirely stone too. I just hoped that the grass round it wasn’t too dry.
Reluctantly, the others descended. I heard Scarlet instructing them to cover their mouths in case there was a lot of smoke. I steadied myself, stood on tiptoe and held the flaming torch up to the doors. It licked at the wood, as if it were trying out the taste, and then, slowly, it began to take hold.
I coughed as the smoke trailed into my mouth.
“Be careful!” I heard Scarlet yell from below.
The heat spread. I felt it on my face and pulled my mask down to try to shield myself. The wood was catching, but I wasn’t sure it was enough. Would it burn properly?
But then there was a crack and the flames spread across both doors. That, I prayed, was enough. I ran back down the steps and skidded to a halt at the bottom, just about managing to keep the flaming torch aloft.
The others looked at me wordlessly, their arms across their faces. Ebony had something black wrapped round hers.
I could hear the crackling of the fire above and then more cracks as the wood splintered. And then, suddenly … there was a cascade of sounds all at once. It sounded a lot like many pieces of burning wood falling on to stone steps.
We ran up, dancing over the smouldering remains on the stones, until we came to the hole where the doors had once been. And together, we emerged, coughing and laughing all at once, into the moonlight.
Chapter Thirty-nine
SCARLET
e stamped out some of the small flames that had begun eating away at the grass and then fell into a tangled heap.
“We did it!” I cried, grinning up at the
full moon. I waved some of the smoke away and took some gulps of fresh air.
The night sky spun. There was a flurry of dark shapes above and I soon realised why.
“Bats,” Ariadne said. “We disturbed the bats.”
They flitted between the trees and the chapel roof, like strange birds. They suddenly didn’t seem scary to me any more. They meant we were free.
I heard a commotion then and looked over towards the entrance of the graveyard, where a group of people were coming through the gate.
“Girls! Oh, girls!” It was Mrs Knight. She hurried over. “Are you all right?”
Madame Zelda was close behind her. “What is all this smoke? We saw it from the school. We were searching for you.”
I sat back and looked at the others. I didn’t know where to start. Ariadne was leaning on Ivy, panting. Ebony was half-lying in the grass, looking a little sheepish. She had a pile of black items clutched in her hands.
The third figure, I realised, was Ebony’s father. He reached down and scooped her up. She hugged him, dropping the items to the ground. “What’s happened?” he asked, his handsome face wrought with worry.
Mrs Knight looked back and forth between us and realised that we didn’t know how to answer. “It’s all right,” she said. “Take your time.”
“Have you found Muriel?” I asked, a little breathless.
“Yes,” said Madame Zelda, with a frown. “Miss Bowler caught her sneaking back into the school. She is being dealt with.” That meant an ear-splitting lecture from Miss Bowler, but I knew Muriel deserved worse. “Why? What on earth is going on here, girls?”
“Miss, I tried to tell you,” Ariadne said. “I was threatened by someone dressed as a witch at the party! It was Muriel, and she locked us down here! She’s been causing trouble for months!”
Mrs Knight’s face wrinkled. She turned to Ivy and me. “I thought you said you didn’t see anything?”
Ivy stared down at the grass. “We were being cowardly. We thought we’d be expelled if we got involved in any trouble.” It all seemed so far away now, having just run for our lives from a burning crypt. But it reminded me that we weren’t out of the woods yet. We were deeply involved in the trouble now.
The teachers didn’t look very impressed with her explanation. “So Muriel was this witch?” Madame Zelda asked. “Are you sure?”
“Certain,” we chorused.
Ebony reached down and I soon realised what it was she’d been carrying – Muriel’s disguise: a flattened witch’s hat, a black wig and a mask. She held them all out for everyone to see.
“I’m sorry for sneaking out, Miss. We had to. We went looking for Muriel because we realised she must have taken Ariadne,” I explained. And we found her tying Ariadne up in the crypt. Then when we tried to rescue her, Muriel locked us in as well. She said she was going to leave us to rot.”
“I see,” said Mrs Knight, frowning. “I think we need to get everyone back inside …”
I held Ivy’s hand as we walked up Rookwood’s front steps, suddenly feeling small again. The frown hadn’t left Mrs Knight’s face and my heart was sinking with every step. This couldn’t be good. We’d broken our last warning.
Despite the school’s huge doors being shut, I could hear Miss Bowler from outside. She was really laying into Muriel for sneaking out. I almost expected the doors to be quivering on their hinges.
Mrs Knight led us and the teachers back into the front hall.
“THERE ARE RULES AT THIS SCHOOL FOR A REASON, YOUNG LADY, AND I FOR ONE—” Miss Bowler came to a halt in the middle of her tirade, noticing that we’d come in. Muriel was standing, blank-faced, giving nothing away.
“We’ve found the others,” Mrs Knight explained to her.
Miss Bowler went a bit red as she saw Mr McCloud standing there, his fee-paying and generous arm wrapped round his daughter’s shoulders. “Ah. Good.”
I glared my fiercest glare at Muriel. I almost hoped we were going to be expelled because I wanted to tell her precisely what I thought of her. But then images of our stepmother and the asylum flashed into my mind. No, I thought. It’s not worth it. She’s not worth it.
“I’m afraid we have a bit of a situation, Eunice,” Mrs Knight said quietly to Miss Bowler as she headed towards her.
It was a little bizarre seeing them together while they were still wearing fancy-dress costumes, and that went for the rest of us as well: two black cats, a lion, a pretend witch and a real witch.
Muriel said nothing. She just blinked. I wondered if she was going to run away.
“There’s been trouble?” Miss Bowler asked.
Mrs Knight nodded. “We found these girls escaping from some sort of basement beneath the chapel.”
“It’s a crypt,” said Ariadne helpfully.
“A crypt,” Mrs Knight said. “They burned their way out of the doors.”
Miss Bowler turned her lethal gaze on us. “And WHAT, pray, were you lot doing in a crypt when you should have been in your beds?”
“I …” I started to protest. “We …” The words just wouldn’t come out. Where could I start? “We had to go because …”
Miss Bowler’s nostrils flared like a bull. “Did you lie to us about the missing shoe, Miss Grey?”
I looked down at my shoes, which were very much in a pair. “Yes, Miss. Sorry, Miss.”
“Well, this is unacceptable.” She waved an angry finger back and forth between Ivy and me. “Weren’t you two on your last warning? Mrs Knight, don’t you think they’ve caused enough trouble?”
I bit my lip so hard I thought I might draw blood. Ivy was still gripping my hand.
Thoughts raced through my head. We won’t go back to our stepmother. We won’t. We’ll run away. We’ll live on the streets if we have to. Anything but her. Anything but the asylum. I squeezed Ivy’s hand in return, hoping that the thoughts would somehow jump out of my head and into hers.
But Mrs Knight didn’t say anything for a moment. She looked conflicted. “Well …” she started. “These girls said that Miss Witherspoon here tied up Miss Flitworth and intended to keep them all trapped down there. Is that so, Miss Witherspoon?”
“No,” said Muriel. She folded her arms. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“We might have to consider expulsion …” Mrs Knight said quietly, and I felt the hairs rise on the back of my neck. I had to do something.
But just as I was about to go and shake the truth out of her, something amazing happened.
Ebony stepped forward.
“Papa,” she said. “I have to confess something.”
His dark brows narrowed in concern. “What is it, lassie?”
“I didn’t want to come to this school. I wanted to get expelled, and Muriel was supposed to be helping me. She persuaded me to pretend I was a witch. I’ve been causing trouble all term.” She winced at Mrs Knight. “Sorry, Miss, but there’s more. We are telling the truth. Muriel has had a vendetta against Ariadne because Ariadne got her expelled from their old school for bullying, and she thinks it ruined her life. So she’s been trying to ruin Ariadne’s life in return. That’s why she locked her in the crypt and then tried to lock us in too. Then she dropped her costume and ran away.” Ebony let the pieces of Muriel’s disguise fall to the floor.
“You’re lying,” Muriel snapped, her gaze only momentarily flicking to the costume pieces. “She’s lying, Miss—”
“Don’t you dare!” Ebony stepped forward and her black hair whipped out behind her. There was lightning in her stormy eyes. I saw Muriel take a sharp breath. The teachers stared in a strange awe. Suddenly, there was something real in Ebony’s magic. “I will NOT let you get away with this. You were going to kill us!”
Muriel spoke again, but it came out smaller and quieter. “I was only trying to scare you.”
“So you admit it?” Madame Zelda asked from behind us, her arms folded and a quizzical eyebrow raised.
Muriel’s eyes darted around the room, pa
nicked. “I … no, I … I didn’t mean …”
But the teachers were ignoring her now and had started muttering amongst themselves. I gave Ebony a quick smile. She had done it.
Muriel leant back against the secretary’s desk, her face pale and drawn. Miss Bowler marched over and took hold of her arm. “Don’t be going anywhere now,” she said.
“Ebony,” her father called and she went back over to him. “You wanted to be expelled? Why?”
I saw her lower lip quiver, but her determination was still there. “I just wanted to be with you, at the theatre. I’m so sorry, Papa. I just got caught up in it. I shouldn’t have listened to her.”
“A bit of amateur dramatics, aye?” he said. “Taken a step too far?”
She nodded. He looked down at her and I could see he was making a decision.
“Mrs Knight,” he called, striding over to her. “Don’t expel these girls. My daughter will promise to be a model student from now on –” He turned – “won’t you, Ebony?”
“But, Papa,” she protested quietly. “I want to come home.”
“And you will,” he replied. “In the holidays. And you can have a part in the next production, if you behave well. You’ve proven yourself a good actress. But you need an education.”
Ebony sighed, but then a slow smile spread across her face. “And you’ll teach me more tricks?”
“Of course,” he said. “And these three,” he pointed to Ivy, Ariadne and myself. “It sounds like they’ve been the victim of this girl’s scheming. Shouldn’t they have another chance to prove themselves?”
“Well, I don’t know …” Mrs Knight began.
“If the girls hadn’t disobeyed you and sneaked out, then what would have become of their friend? Haven’t they shown bravery and ingenuity? Those sound like important parts of the school spirit to me.” He turned and winked at us. It seemed as though he’d been paying more attention than he’d been letting on.
The Curse in the Candlelight Page 21
