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

by Eden Unger Bowditch

Noah looked down. Indeed, there was much he wanted to know, but so much he could not share. He ran his fingers through Ralph’s soft coat. One of the brothers had bathed the dog while they were all out rescuing Ariana. Noah looked up at his mother. She was looking directly at him, focusing on him alone.

  “I love you,” said Ariana, looking deeply and seriously at her son.

  They continued to their room in silence. Baths had been drawn and Noah let himself soak in the warmth of the water and the sweet scent of herbs that filled the room. The water stung where he had open wounds, but it felt good to wash the night away. He dried himself and put on the clean cotton robes left for him by the brothers. Entering the bedroom, he found his parents, cleaned and dressed, embracing on the bed. He looked at them and smiled. Seeing them together gave him a sense of peace.

  As he lay his head on his pillow, his mother leaned over to kiss his forehead. Her face was free of soot and smudges. She wore no make-up or jewels. Her hair was down and long. He noticed, for the first time, strands of gray in her auburn locks. Had they been there before all of this? Her smile brought him back to her face. Just before his eyes closed and sleep fell upon him, he said to himself, Remember this.

  “Your nose makes funny noises,” came the voice just on the other side of Noah’s eyelids. He could feel Lucy’s breath on his face.

  “Your nose makes funny noises because a bird flew up and built a nest in your left nostril,” said Noah, opening his eyes to a giggling Lucy Modest.

  Ariana emerged from the bathroom. She wore a long elegant morning robe and she looked radiant in the late morning sun. This woman had been kidnapped and was nearly starved. But here, she looked like a queen who had never left her palace.

  “Your biggest fan could not wait for you to wake,” said Ariana. “Lucy insisted on checking up on your nose to find out what was making such a racket. I told her I thought it was your natural alarm trumpet when you go for more than two hours without food.”

  “His tummy is snoring, too,” said Lucy, her head on Noah’s belly. Ralph jumped up from the covers and began to lick Noah’s face.

  “Very well, then. If I must suffer such indignities,” said Noah, tossing Ralph onto the pillows, throwing off his blanket, and wrapping Lucy in it as she giggled ferociously. “I shall eat this delicious crepe á la Lucy.” Noah pretended to fit Lucy and the blanket in his mouth. Lucy was in hysterics. Noah chewed. “Blech! This is much too chewy. And fuzzy. No, I shall require a proper breakfast.”

  “Very well,” said Ariana, taking Lucy’s hand in one hand and Noah’s in her other. “Shall we retire to the breakfast hall?”

  “Where’s Father?” asked Noah.

  “He’s already having tea. He is feeling stronger and insists on sitting with us.” Ariana kissed Noah on his head. Lucy looked up and closed her eyes, offering a pair of puckered lips. Ariana laughed and bent down to kiss Lucy. The little girl squealed with pleasure.

  They could smell the delicious breakfast offerings from down the corridor. And the splendor of the room was greater than Noah and Lucy could have imagined. Several small tables and the long dining table were laden with everything from grand roasts on beds of caramelized onions and greens to fresh crusty breads and sweet butter. There were plates of tiny cakes and honeyed sweets. There were bowls of fresh figs and dates, pomegranates and mangoes, oranges and guavas. Acolyte brothers were running around with trays of tea, karkadai, and sweet coconut milk. It was a celebration fit for a kingdom.

  “That is a lot of food,” said Jasper, arriving just behind Noah.

  “I hope there’s something left for everyone else,” said Noah. “I’m hungry.”

  Dr. Rajesh Vigyanveta caught Jasper’s eye and beamed.

  “Delivered, as promised,” said Dr. Rajesh, handing Jasper a photograph of the lemonade seller. “Komar Romak’s spy could not have been more confused, and the gentleman with the lemonade could not have been more pleased.”

  Lucy climbed up on a chair to see the photograph. “Jasper made a delicious invention and saved the lemonade.”

  “Where is Mr. Tesla?” asked Lucy.

  “He has left for America,” said Mr. Bell. “He came to us in the midst of his very large project.”

  Noah rubbed his hands together. “Well, more for me.”

  With a wink, Noah grabbed two cups of juice from a tray and reached to hand one to Jasper. Instead, he drank it and looked as if he was offering the other, but drank that, too. He shrugged his shoulders and grabbed two more, handing one to his friend.

  “Let us toast to…toast. And jams and jellies and meats and sweets.” Noah clinked glasses with Jasper and drank his juice in one gulp. Putting down his glass, he grabbed two handfuls of biscuits and managed to get the lot of them into his mouth at once. With that, he offered a gentleman’s bow to Jasper and simply fell upon the food like a starved man.

  Jasper smiled. Noah was back. Noah, his friend, impossibly silly and hungry, seemed to have returned from the depths, though Jasper thought he saw a trace of worry in Noah’s eyes. He hoped it was his imagination.

  “Eat, drink, and be merry,” said Noah.

  There it is again, thought Jasper. Perhaps it is just the ghost of despair.

  “Tea?” Faye offered Jasper a glass of strong sweet tea.

  He took it. The two stood and watched the scene before them. Parents busily chatted and laughed, though sometimes a shadow of concern fell upon them. Lucy scurried around like a little mouse, nibbling on this, tasting that.

  For several nibbles, she hovered over one of the trays of honeyed sweets and made herself a sandwich by splitting a small creamed cake in half, placing chocolates and dates inside, and pouring honey over the entire thing. Dr. Isobel Modest began to scold her but, instead, was offered a bite, which she took. The two Modest ladies laughed as honey stuck to their noses and chins.

  “It feels good, now that we’re all together,” said Jasper, but Faye could sense his hesitation.

  “But it doesn’t feel over,” she said. “It feels as if we are simply waiting for the darkness to fall.”

  “Or to be told what the darkness is,” said Jasper. “And I fear once we know, the light will never feel as warm again.”

  With rested bodies and full bellies, everyone sat together in Mr. Bell’s office, enjoying the last cups of tea and warmth from the fireplace, and felt comfort in the surrounding books. The raven, likely off visiting friends, was not on its perch, so the quiet chatter hummed through the room without any squawks or grunting interruptions.

  As light conversation settled into silence, the air filled with heavy anticipation. They had all avoided the subject that was, in fact, the elephant in the room—the one that everyone had allowed themselves to pretend was not there.

  “What happened to your lovely shiny costume?” asked Lucy, her legs together as she sipped tea, mimicking Ariana’s elegant posture.

  Very well, thought Jasper. That’s as good a way as any to start the conversation no one wants to start but everyone wants to finish.

  “Well,” said Ariana, placing her teacup and saucer on the table as Lucy did the same, “why don’t we begin with the night at the opera?”

  “Yes,” agreed Noah. “Let’s.”

  Ariana smoothed her skirt and looked around the room, though not at anyone in particular. “I had been warming my throat in my dressing room. It was minutes before curtain and I was so excited to be on stage, performing for all of you. A new assistant came back with a cup of special tea. I was pleased. I like ginger and honey before I go on. I took a few sips and, as I stood, I felt a bit dizzy. That’s all I remember. Of course, I had never seen this assistant before and the tea turned out to be a sleeping draft, and a strong one at that.

  “When I awoke and the sun had come up, I was still in my costume. From the strength of the sun on my face, I supposed it was near midday. From a quick peek, I could feel a rough mattress and smelled something dank, though I dared not raise my head. I chose to keep my eyes clo
sed for some time, preferring not to face what was inevitably awaiting me. I was brought tea, which I refused. I was made to drink it, and I slept some more.

  “I did not know what time of day, or even what day, it was. I had concerns that I might have been taken by an obsessed fan of the opera. But even as I considered this, I found it unlikely.

  “The first voice I remember hearing was that of a child. Strangely, they seemed to have sent a small boy to bring me food and water. But the boy turned out to be a girl, whom I took for a boy, because she was dressed in a boy’s robes and wore her hair hidden under a keffiyeh. She was very sweet and, soon, we became friends. And what a voice! That child was truly remarkable. She told me her father dressed her like a boy so she could sing in the mosque. I told her she had made a garden out of the desert. Mark my words: That little Oum Kalthoum shall someday be a great star.”

  Ariana seemed lost in her thoughts of the little girl.

  “But how did a little girl come to care for you?” asked Lucy, unable to wiggle away from the nip of jealousy.

  “I learned that her family had been forced to help, either by some promise, some threat, or both. It is from her that I learned what I had feared. I learned that I had not been taken by a fan of the opera, but by Komar Romak.”

  “You know of Komar Romak?” asked Noah, though he realized after days and days of capture, she might have learned the name.

  “Son,” said his father, but Ariana cut him off with a pleading look.

  “Noah, there is much I will tell you now.” She placed a hand on his. “And so much I wish I did not have to, but what you must know. Sheltering you, as I have always wanted to do, will not protect you from anything.”

  “Protect me from what?” asked Noah, not quite sure what Ariana could mean. “You’ve been protecting me, too? So…there’s something you haven’t told me, too? Something I don’t know?”

  “Please,” begged Faye. “Please tell us what happened.”

  Ariana looked at Noah. He nodded. His questions would wait.

  “A man came,” Ariana continued. “My mind was not clear, but it was clear who he was. He was rough and bent. He had a scar across his face and was missing a finger on his left hand. I knew him to be Komar Romak.”

  While everyone knew Komar Romak to be danger incarnate, only Noah knew that he, too, had met this form of the evil, the very same Komar Romak with the missing finger.

  “He demanded that I tell him…what I knew. He said my time was limited. I knew I had to try to escape, but I had no idea where I was. I could have been anywhere. From what I could learn, I was near the Nile Delta, but that was far from Cairo. I had to devise a plan. Little Oum was my assistant.”

  “But someone rigged the explosion,” said Noah. “Someone created a delayed ignition with the candle. The little girl could not have done it. Someone else must have come up with that idea.”

  “I had been noticing the foaming manure,” said Ariana, “and considered the presence of nitrites and the excess of methane. I realized that if I could cause an explosion, I could create a distraction and make my escape. Then I hoped to find someone along the road and, with the robes my little friend had brought me, I might pass unnoticed.”

  “You thought to create an explosion from the methane?” Noah was more than surprised. “Mother? You?”

  “Yes, my son. That night, oh, I was so worried when Gwen and Isobel said you were over there,” said Ariana. “I thought you had been hurt in the explosion. You see, I knew you, my friends, would come. I had been able to reverse the coordinates on the butterfly and send back the photographs after recharging the battery. I should have told you about the explosive manure.”

  “You did that?” Noah stared at his mother as if for the first time. “You know how to blow up a hut?”

  Ariana looked down, averting her eyes from the shock on her son’s face. “Noah, my son, I…I’ve not wanted to admit…to have you know…that once, long ago …”

  “What? That you’re one of them?” asked Noah, still not sure if his ears were deceiving him.

  “No,” said Dr. Banneker, firmly. “No, she is not one of us.”

  “But I was,” said Ariana. “I once was part of this group of scientists.” She gestured around the room. “I was a child of genius and, because of that, I was taken into this strange world of fear, danger, and invention. I, too, was once a member of the Young Inventors Guild.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  ARIANA PRESENTS HER PAST

  OR

  THE BOY WHO KEEPS HIS OWN

  “Please, Mother,” said Noah, “start from the beginning. I simply do not believe what I am hearing.” He was beginning to feel that he didn’t know her at all.

  There was a long moment of silence in Mr. Bell’s office before Ariana continued to speak.

  “As a child, my parents allowed me access to all their science. They had a laboratory in which I had my own table. I worked most enthusiastically in chemistry and physics. We spent many hours together, studying the physics of chemical reactions and the behavior of different chemicals as they interact. My mother’s family was originally from Egypt, by way of Greece originally, and she carried the wisdom of her ancestor Claudius Ptolemy.

  “My father’s heritage was both Italian and Persian. He descended from a long line of philosophers of science. And it was he who brought music into my life. He taught me songs of the Italian opera. I would often sing as I worked, and my parents said it inspired them. My music and my science, they said, made for a joyous duet. It was splendid and I wished for no other life.

  “And then came the mysterious men in black. One day, I was forced from my rooms and, escaping to our laboratory, discovered my parents nowhere to be found. I was alone. Only the strangest of men in the oddest of dress came to escort me away, but to where? They refused to tell me.

  “After days of travel, I was put on a ship. I explored the different decks and found a laboratory. I busied myself with equations and plots, though a plan to escape from somewhere in the middle of the ocean seemed foolhardy, even to a girl of twelve. To myself, I sang arias of tragedy as I attempted to find answers to anything I could. For two days, I believed I was alone, except for the odd men who fed me and cleaned up after me.”

  “Then, on the third morning, as I sang alone in my laboratory, I came to the end of an aria. The sound of clapping made me jump and I almost knocked over a beaker of mercury. There, not more than a few feet away from me, was a gangly lad in baggy britches and a mop of hair on his head, sticking this way and that.”

  “That was me,” Dr. Canto-Sagas cut in. “I was the mop-head.”

  Ariana looked lovingly at her husband and kissed him gently on the cheek. “You were adorable.”

  “Your little beaded handbag,” said Lucy, as everyone turned to her.

  Ariana smiled. “Yes, my dear, you found my little beaded handbag on that ship, the one that took you to Solemano. It was the very same ship. I remember how unhappy I had been about losing my bag on that voyage. It had my initials embroidered on it. Thank you for finding it, Lucy.”

  “So where did you go?” asked Faye. “Where were they taking you?”

  “At first, they took us to Istanbul,” said Ariana, “and it was there that Ben Banneker came on board. He was furious and very awkward. He was also small for his age—small, but rather plump. And he was rather quiet but oh-so-very clever.”

  “Small for his age?” asked Wallace, looking at his strapping, powerful father. He had never imagined that his father had been anything other than what he was now.

  “Oh, yes,” Ariana laughed. “Our Ben was a bit round about the middle, but was much shorter than Clarence, even though he was nearly six months older. He grew fast, though, and was soon the tallest of us all. But I shall always remember young Ben as he was that day.”

  Dr. Banneker’s face went hot, looking meekly at his son. Wallace, however, clung tightly to his father’s arm. He smiled broadly. He and his father were more
alike than he had ever supposed.

  “We were in Istanbul for only a few days,” continued Ariana, “and then we travelled to Barcelona, where we were joined by Tobias Modest. We then moved on to Marseilles, where Isobel Becquerel joined us.”

  Faye whispered to Jasper, “Bequerel is your mother’s maiden name?” Faye had never asked. Her own mother had quaint American roots. “The Becquerel family is a family with a long line of physicists.” She looked at Jasper, smiling. “I never knew.”

  “I never thought much about it,” said Jasper. “It’s just family.” Faye’s mother’s maiden name was Wright, as they all knew. That carried some weight, too.

  Ariana continued, “And then we sailed along the coast. Louisa Lattimore was waiting at the port in Corfu …” Ariana sucked in her breath, and looking over at Wallace, she said, “You remind me of your father, but sometimes you…I loved your mother, Wallace. She was one of the best friends I ever had.” Ariana smiled sadly at Isobel, who nodded, coming over to take her hand and kiss Ariana on each cheek twice.

  Ariana recovered herself. “Then we sailed back down to Cyprus, where we met Rajesh Vigyanveta. He had been left there, alone with the mysterious men in black, for almost a week before we arrived. He had been cloistered in a fortified ancient Greek villa. In isolation, he refused to eat and apparently had been crying the whole time.”

  “Nonsense,” insisted Dr. Rajesh Vigyanveta, patting his wife’s hand as she looked mortified.

  “My sweet Rajesh,” she said. “My poor love, left alone and crying. And no one fed you? You never told me that part.”

  “It is rubbish,” he protested, then admitted: “Well, perhaps I did cry for a few short days. And I was wholly underfed, yes. They tried to feed me octopus, if I remember correctly. Not to worry, Gwendolyn, my dear. I seem to have made up for some of that food deprivation, now”—he patted his own significant belly. “I must admit, it was terrifying to be …” Then, as if for the first time, he looked at Faye. “My little marmelo, I am so sorry. I did not even think of how you…Goodness, I remember how painful it was for me to be left alone. I am so very sorry, my dear child.”