The Strange Round Bird: Or the Poet, the King, and the Mysterious Men in Black

by Eden Unger Bowditch

  Noah opened the door to his father’s room in the infirmary. Nothing had changed. His father lay there, silent.

  “Father.” Noah held his father’s hand. “We are going out now. We are going to get Mother and bring her back safely.”

  Noah waited…and hoped.

  “Father.” Noah leaned over and kissed his father’s forehead. “You rest and be well. We shall all be together soon.”

  Noah squeezed his father’s hand. And his father squeezed back!

  “Father! You can hear me?”

  His father squeezed again. Noah was ecstatic. But he knew that his father was still fragile.

  “Rest, Father,” said Noah, hugging his father and feeling renewed strength from his father’s steps toward recovery.

  Noah ran to the others. Starting this rescue mission with good news felt as if luck was on their side.

  They could hear Ralph barking from the window upstairs. His little nose was pressed against the glass. It was too risky to bring him on this rescue mission. One bark could set off an alarm. It would be safer for everyone, including Ralph, if he did not come.

  “Very well,” said Mr. Bell, standing by the carriage. “Everything is in place.”

  Mr. Bell and Nikola Tesla would remain at the castle. The newly-hatted brother with the musketeeter cap and Noah were supposed to ride horses. Considering Noah’s sudden pallor, Mr. Bell rethought the plan.

  Instead, Noah set off in a carriage with two brothers—the musketeer and an acolyte. They would strategically place the chessmen, now with transmitters and tiny receivers for sound, around the location where Ariana had sent word. The chessmen would serve as beacons. Any sound louder than wind would be transmitted.

  Each chessman was, in essence, a transmitter. A sound near that chessmen would cause a light to blink on the wooden board. By turning up the audio receiver, Jasper and Faye would then be able to know if the sound was a person or just a noisy animal. Then they could send a warning to whoever was near that sound.

  And so, the carriages would follow. Dr. Banneker was in the first carriage, which contained blankets, water, food, and brandy for Ariana once she was safely rescued.

  A second carriage would be the foil, the distraction leading whoever might be following on a wild goose chase. Dr. Rajesh Vigyanveta and two brothers went in this carriage. Dr. Vigyanveta asked lots of questions and behaved very suspiciously. Jasper had the idea of sending him with the invention for the lemonade seller. Jasper had never had a chance to get the invention to the man. The invention could be made to look sinister, which would help in the deception. Now was the perfect time for the sending, which would serve two purposes.

  “No one will know it is simply an invention to help the lemonade seller,” Jasper suggested. “It could be anything.”

  Dr. Vigyanveta would bring Faye’s camera and take photos in the Khan to create more of a diversion.

  “Please let the seller know how much this will help him,” said Jasper, handing the invention to Dr. Vigyanveta.

  Dr. Vigyanveta smiled. “I shall take a photograph, which will have two benefits. I shall appear suspicious to Komar Romak, and you will get to put your kindness into action.”

  A third carriage would trail the first, act as a decoy, and drive mostly in circles.

  In a fourth carriage, Faye, Jasper, Wallace, and Lucy would set up a small receiving station one-quarter mile from the coordinates. This was about as far as they could be and still receive a signal from the chess piece automatons.

  They would wait, watch, and signal to Noah and his father using the king’s black knight that Noah would have in his pocket. When the black knight reared, Noah would know it was safe, or believed to be safe, for him to go to the minaret. Wearing a galabaya and traditional headscarf, Noah would not seem terribly out of place, except for the night-seeing glasses he wore to find his way in the dark.

  Meanwhile, Drs. Isobel Modest and Gwendolyn Vigyanveta, dressed in peasant robes and carrying baskets, planned to arrive in a donkey cart and walk across the field. They would be visible and obviously trespassing, which would be further distraction and draw attention away from Noah. Once Ariana was warned and had made it to the minaret, the other mothers would have robes in their baskets, in case she was still in her costume, and clean water and emergency medical supplies, if needed.

  The children, their parents, and the men in black shook hands and each group set out to play their own special part to bring Ariana Canto-Sagas safely back to the castle. As the carriages pulled out, Noah thought of his father, who was on the mend. Nikola Tesla stood on the steps waving back at Lucy, who was beaming through the back window.

  “Are we there yet?” Faye and Jasper quickly asked together before Lucy could ask again, for the uncountableth time.

  “Very funny,” said Lucy. “I only wanted to know…Oh, never mind.” Lucy fell back to sleep. She had been sleeping most of the ride, intermittently waking to ask if they had arrived yet.

  The answer was, of course, no, they had not arrived yet. The direct route would have taken hours, but they added on time doing what the men in black always did—driving in zig-zags and loops to avoid detection. But once out of Cairo, where the roads were dark with only the stars and moon to light the way, they would safely drive straight ahead at full speed. On watch for interlopers, Jasper used his night-seeing glasses, but had only seen two owls in flight, a fox, and several sleeping cows. No Komar Romak.

  After what felt like ages on the long, dark road, the carriage slowed and pulled over beside the ruins of an old shepherd’s hut. Jasper, Faye, and Wallace set up their guard station in the shelter of the old structure so the lights from the operating board would be hidden from the road. They waited for a while to be sure the other carriages arrived at their destinations, the chessmen were in place, and everyone was ready for action. Checking the board, Wallace found only four beacon lights flashing. They could hear that one was a barking dog, two more were barking dogs responding to the first, and a fourth was a snoring donkey. No Komar Romak or henchmen to be seen or heard anywhere near the chessmen.

  Then Wallace heard it; the white king’s bishop spoke. Rather, it transmitted the voices of two men. The white king’s bishop was just on the far side of the dovecote, mere feet from where Noah was presently waiting.

  “Grab the lever and push!” cried Faye. “Warn the black knight! And the white queen! Hurry!”

  But Wallace was already repeatedly pushing the button repeatedly. They could only hope that the signal went through. There was nothing else they could do.

  Noah fumbled with the black knight in his pocket. It not only kept kicking, but also squeaked with each kick. Noah lamented not including an off-switch, which was most unfortunate in case Faye, Wallace, and Jasper had to warn him again. And then his heart nearly stopped. The black knight was desperately warning him that danger was near. Silently, Noah and the brothers in black inched their way nearer to the dovecote, though the black knight had warned them it was unsafe to run across to the minaret.

  “What are they saying?” asked Noah, finally seeing what the black knight had signaled. The mysterious brother in black on his left listened with a finger to his lips. The black knights, thought Noah. Perhaps it was joy, bordering on giddiness, which allowed for his natural humor to kick in at that moment. Here he was with a king’s black knight in his pocket and a pair of king’s black knights on either side.

  “The guard not happy,” said the young acolyte in a whisper. “Beauty asleep. No song.”

  “The other one say money good,” said the brother musketeer, also whispering. “Job almost done.” The brother listened for another few moments until Noah heard the men laughing. “Will miss her… camel voice.”

  “Camel voice?” Noah mouthed in near silence.

  “Sorry gamille, beautiful voice.” The acolyte corrected himself.

  Noah was furious. Fury at equating his mother’s voice with a camel’s was replaced with fury at Komar Romak’s men ge
tting to hear her voice at all. Miss her voice? Did that mean they had planned to kill her? Was she still inside that house? He looked over at the tiny mud hut. In the darkness, he could see a faint glow coming from a window.

  “I must go there,” said Noah, pointing to the glow.

  “No,” warned the musketeer brother. “We not go.”

  “Look.” Noah pointed to the hut. “You see that glow? You see how it is not candle light? And there is no electricity in that hut? That glow is coming from the gems in my mother’s dress. That is what she used to send us the message. She is in there!”

  As Dr. Gwendolyn Vigyanveta and Dr. Isobel Modest, dressed as peasant women, shuffled across the field, they suddenly froze in terror, when the white queen came to life in Isobel’s hands. Danger was near. Drs. Isobel and Gwendolyn had seen three figures scurry across the field, heading towards the small hut. Could that be Noah and the brothers? The three figures seemed to be in a hurry and paid no mind. The women were able to stay easily out of sight.

  But there were two other figures moving slowly across the field. Komar Romak? The scientists had to hide. The two figures continued to head for the hut, speaking aloud, not trying to hide. Those two were not part of the rescue party. If the three figures running had been Noah and the brothers, there was no way to warn them that these two were coming. The warning, they hoped, would come from the black knight.

  “Let’s go,” whispered Dr. Isobel Modest.

  They hurried towards the dovecote, but it was silent. There was no one there. They pretended to scatter seeds on the ground, as if they were feeding the doves. Neither Dr. Isobel nor Dr. Gwendolyn was even sure if this was how it was done, but they needed to wander around and pretend to be peasants caring for the pigeons. Ariana was not there.

  “The minaret,” said Dr. Isobel Modest. “Let’s go over there.”

  She covered her mouth quickly as the white queen moved in her hand. They could hear men’s voices. The men were coming back that way.

  No one was outside the hut. Still, Noah and the two brothers crept low until they reached the window. Slowly, Noah lifted his head to peer into the room.

  “No!” he almost cried out, but stopped with a silent gasp. They were too late.

  On the bed, arms stretched out, headdress resting face down, lay the body of Ariana Canto-Sagas. Noah felt his legs sag. His head whirled, his body went cold. He felt sickness rising in his gut.

  But the brother pulled him up and pointed through the window. Noah shook his head. He didn’t want to look again.

  As they neared the minaret, Dr. Isobel Modest saw a woman hunched in a corner, her old robes hanging loose around her, her head covered in a traditional manner. The woman stirred as they approached.

  “Minfadlik,” Dr. Isobel Modest started, trying to say “please” in as close to authentic local Arabic as possible. She was going to pretend to ask for food or something, in case this woman owned the land.

  The woman jumped up and ran towards them. They had no plan in case they were attacked. They had nothing but robes, water, medicine, and food in their basket.

  The woman all but threw herself upon Isobel. It only took a moment for Isobel to throw her arms around the woman. It was Ariana.

  “Only the costume?” Noah felt the life drain back into his being. “Only the costume?” He quickly realized that his mother must have left the costume like that in her room in order to make it appear she was resting. Of course, upon further examination, he could see it was merely stuffed with the blanket that must have been on the bed.

  In dismay, he realized that they had left the two mothers alone, without anyone on look-out.

  “We had better get back,” said Noah, turning towards the field.

  Noah could see two large shapes heading towards the tower. If the three women were seen, all would be lost. Noah grabbed the sleeve of the brother next to him.

  “We must go right—” Noah stopped. He had tripped across a string that was taut across the side of the hut, leading to…a heap of rotting manure? The small flame of a candle was attached to a string that had, in turn, been attached to a pulley. Noah saw in a flash what was about to happen. The candle was going to tip over, loosening the string, causing the string to catch fire.

  As Noah watched, the string became a wick, burning quickly. The flame headed for the festering, foaming, disgusting manure. It only took a second for Noah to put it all together. Who had created this brilliant trap? It didn’t matter now. Manure, methane, nitrite…

  “Run!” shouted Noah, dragging the brothers away from the manure as fast as he could.

  They immediately felt the blast, which knocked them to the ground. Dragging themselves away, they crawled from the burning hut, towards the dovecote. The men were now running towards the hut. The front of the hut was ablaze. Soon, the whole thing might go up in flames. The two guards were shouting at one another.

  Another spray of flaming cow dung exploded from the pile, shooting out into the field where Noah and the brothers crouched, crawling low towards the dovecote. The two guards were trying to contain the flames by throwing dirt at the hut and on one another.

  Noah turned and beat out a small flame on one brother’s robe. He did not have time to consider that his mother must have had an ally—someone who created the explosion. The brother returned the favor as Noah’s sleeve caught some of the flaming poo.

  With the guards distracted by the fire, Noah and the brothers stood to run. Noah wiped his nose but the wet kept coming. He must have a bloody nose. He pulled his scarf around his face. There was no time to find something better to stop the bleeding.

  Noah and the brothers reached the dovecote. Noah had been worried that the light from the flames would make them visible, but the two guards were clearly too busy arguing over which one should enter the hut and save what they thought was Ariana. Neither seemed up to the task.

  Suddenly, Noah and the brothers stopped dead in the field, freezing on the spot. Three robed figures raced towards them. Noah could not tell if they were men or women or what weapons they might be carrying. Heart pounding in his chest, he let the scarf fall from his face, forgetting his bleeding nose.

  “Noah,” came a soft voice from the huddled figures, a voice he had longed to hear. “Are you hurt? I feared that the explosion—”

  “Mother.” Noah threw himself into his mother’s arms.

  “My son.” She said his name again and again, holding him tight, kissing his face. Noah had never felt safer, though he was in a wide open field, and likely in the presence of Komar Romak.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  BACK TO THE CASTLE KEEP

  OR

  THE SAFE AND THE SOUND

  As the full light of morning spread over the hills of Mokhattam, the rescuers finally returned to the castle. Nikola Tesla was standing at the entrance as the carriages came to a stop. This was exactly where he had stood when they rode off into the night, all those hours ago. Noah wondered if he had been standing vigil there, not moving until they returned. Nikola Tesla looked exhausted but relieved and surprisingly well-groomed.

  Two carriages and three riders rode up together while five more carriages had been sent out to ride in circles around Cairo. As soon as Nikola Tesla saw Ariana descend her carriage, he rushed to assist her, uncharacteristically reaching for her hand as she stepped down.

  “You have been hurt?” he asked with gruff concern.

  “Dearest, Nikola, I am well.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek. He did not move away though her appearance was less than tidy.

  Tesla blushed but nodded. “Well, you’re safe and I must pack. I am returning to New York. I am very busy, indeed. No more of these shenanigans …” Continuing to voice his concerns to no one, he turned and swiftly walked into the castle.

  “Where is your father?” asked Ariana.

  On the ride, Noah and his mother had spoken very little. Feeling such an enormous sense of relief to have her near, he did not want to begin the
process of sharing details. Now was the time.

  “I am here,” came a frail but cheerful voice. Dr. Canto-Sagas was sitting in a chair by the entrance to the castle.

  “Father!” cried Noah.

  “Ariana. Noah.” Dr. Canto-Sagas put his arms around both.

  “I wanted to be here to greet you heroes upon your return,” Dr. Canto-Sagas said, his eyes moist with emotion. “I am so sorry I was not able to help.”

  “Nonsense,” said Ariana. “You are always a hero to me, my love.”

  Exhaustion sent most of the night’s players quickly to their baths and beds, but Noah and his parents sat for a while until the brother nurses came to insist that Dr. Canto-Sagas go back inside to rest.

  “My darling, my love,” Dr. Canto-Sagas repeated, again and again as his son and wife helped him back to their rooms. “My most beautiful, beautiful queen.”

  “Clarence,” Ariana demurred. “My dearest love, that you can see beauty in this tumble of rags and soot—”

  “You are beautiful,” interjected Noah. “How can we miss your beauty under any cover?”

  “My son,” said Ariana. “My brilliant, wonderful son. I can imagine that you are the force behind my remarkable rescue.” Tears made tracks through the dirt on her face. Noah attempted to wipe them but found he had managed only to smudge her cheeks. She smiled, and her smile was for him alone.

  “We all played a part, Mother—everyone here.”

  Ariana stopped in the light of a tall window. “Noah,” she said, and a shadow fell across her face even though they stood in the morning rays of sun. “My most precious son, there is so much—”

  “And there is time,” said her husband, his arms around them both, “There is time. You two must bathe and be fed and, as the brothers insist, I must rest. There is much we all need to share.”