Dad eases the tension by raising his glass and saying, “To Marcella Inada!” and everyone clinks glasses. Mr. Inada smiles and dabs at his eye with a tissue. Then Dad announces that they’ll be boarding a coach for a special treat—a whisky tasting—and the room erupts with applause. Dad rubs his hands together and adds, “There are five distilleries just a short ferry ride away and we’ll visit them all tomorrow. Be prepared to be away all day.”
While everyone else gets up to leave the dining room, Uncle Li and I stay seated. Mom comes up behind my chair and puts her hands on my shoulders. “Caity, you’re welcome to come along tomorrow. See the countryside. And Uncle Li, I hope you’ll join us.”
“Blech,” I say. What is it with old people and whisky?
Dr Li shakes his head. “Thanks Fiona, but since I don’t drink I’d be better off here.”
“Uncle Li and I are working on something. Don’t worry about us,” I say.
Mom smiles and then grabs my hand. “Let’s go, honey. I’ll tuck you in.”
“I’m taller than you, you know,” I say, smiling at her as she walks me upstairs.
When she’s gone, I bolt my door and hop into bed with my sketchbook. I have to write some of this stuff down before I forget it.
I turn to a sketch I’d done of Alex. If we’re all just vibrations, maybe I can send some apology vibrations out to him.
I stare into his eyes and say, I’m sorry, Alex. I’m so, so sorry.
I hear the tour van pull up in the morning to take the guests on the whiskey tour. Leaning out my bedroom window, I say goodbye to my parents. Uncle Li is down there too; he motions that he’ll come up.
While I’m waiting, I check my mail and see that there are three connection attempts from Justine flashing on my screen:
Justinem: KT-u there? Haven’t heard a peep!
Justinem: Ok, maybe u r roaming around the castle or swimming in your moat or something
Justinem: Just wanted to fill u in on the latest w/David von Lovesme
My interest is piqued. I write fast.
Caitym: Justine, u still there?
Almost immediately a new message pops up:
Justinem: Hey KT! Yes, still here!
Caitym: What r u doing up?
Justinem: can’t sleep. what r u up 2?
Caitym: oh, just ruining my future with mr. perfect.
Justinem: ?
Caitym: can’t even go into it or i’ll spiral down. what’s the news with David von Lovesyou?
Justinem: OK, I know I’m a big hypocrite cuz I said he was a complete idiot in chemistry, but all of a sudden he’s way in2 me
Caitym: Like throwing grapes at u in the cafeteria kind of in 2 u or asking u out kind of in 2 u?
Justinem: went to a movie last night … although he did throw a few pieces of popcorn at me
Caitym: u GOT 2 tell him that the throwing food thing isn’t really considered flirting
Justinem: I’ll get right on that, since we’re going shopping 2GETHER in exactly 10hrs and 38 minutes!
Caitym: so weird that he likes 2 shop
I try to picture Alex shopping at high-end stores like the dweebs at the Academy of Cruelties. Thinking about the whole commercialism of my San Francisco life kind of creeps me out. I’ll admit I was a shopper, but I wasn’t even one of the bad ones. Some kids went shopping every single day after school.
Justinem: I know—I swear the boys in r class like to shop more than the girls
Caitym: get a hobby David
Justinem: well we know it won’t be chemistry
Caitym: HA!
Justinem: he IS pretty smart in english though, so maybe he’s a left-brainer. or is that a right-brainer?
Caitym: Good try … grasping for straws?
Justinem: I know. do u think I’m pathetic? just going out with him because he’s beautiful?
Caitym: and popular
Justinem: and smells good
Caitym: No, I prefer 2 think u r dating him in an ironic way …
Justinem: Right, like wearing my mom’s puffy-sleeved blouses from the 80s?
Caitym: xactly!
Justinem: ok, so I’m ironic. I feel better—think I may be able to sleep now. beauty rest for tomorrow …
Caitym: as if u need it!
Justinem: XOXOXO infinity …
Caitym: save the kisses for your new boyfriend
After I sign out, I remember the square spiral I have left to decode. I dig it out of the bottom drawer and scan it. As I’m getting Dad’s decoding program rolling Uncle Li knocks on the door. I unbolt it and find him holding hands with Mr. Papers.
We go straight down to the tower so I can draw the rest of the cogs, and make our way over to the center of the two interlocking rings. Mr. Papers can’t resist playing in the magnetic field; I watch as he takes a flying leap off a boulder into the ring, falls almost to the floor, and then begins rising.
Just as we are about to step on the lowering platform, we hear a door slam followed by the grinding slam of a bolt locking. Chills run up and down my body and I find it hard to breathe. “What was that?” I whisper.
He looks at me. I look side to side. Then he heads back to the door. I hold on to his sleeve. “Uncle Li? What’s going on?”
He places a finger on his mouth. “Shhhhh,” he says, almost silently. A snake’s hiss.
We walk quickly over to the door. There’s a strange box sitting at the top of the staircase. Uncle Li jumps the stairs two by two to get to the door but when he turns the knob, nothing happens. Even when he pushes it with his shoulder it doesn’t budge. “Locked,” he says.
No one knows where we are, there are no other doors out, and the place is soundproof. When my protein bar runs out we’ll simply wither up and die here. I feel my throat tightening up, I don’t want to cry but I don’t think I can stop it. My lip starts quivering and then the tears come.
Uncle Li comes down the stairs and puts an arm around my shoulders that are now fully shaking. I can’t stop crying.
“Oh, Caity, we’ll work it out,” he says in his calm steady voice. “Here, let’s have a look in the box.” By this time Mr. Papers is freaked out seeing me cry, so he wraps his arms completely around my neck. It’s constricting but oddly comforting.
We sit on the last step and examine the wooden box that is about the size a pair of boots would come in.
“You want me to open it?” Uncle Li asks.
I wipe the tears from my eyes. “Well, I’m not! What if it’s a snake or something?”
“Hmm, hadn’t really thought of that …” Uncle Li stands back a few feet and gracefully extends his leg, then quickly kicks it open with his foot. All those years of Qigong have paid off.
Nothing pops out of the box. Uncle Li moves closer with his lantern and peers inside. “It’s a note,” he says as he bends over to pick it up. “Oh, and look here. There are books under it.” He picks them up and comes back over to the stairs to sit by me. Then he removes his reading glasses from his chest pocket, puts them on his tiny nose, and reads aloud, “Read. Translate. Write English translation in blank book. At this time tomorrow, knock three times on door and go to far wall. Remain facing wall until you hear door close again.”
“Translate what?” I ask, still sniffling. “Do you think Tenzo did this?”
“Has to be Tenzo,” he says, shaking his head in disgust.
Uncle Li opens the top book. It’s really old and covered in leather, but hand bound with needle and string. The writing is small, and since it’s pretty dark I can’t really read it.
“Hmm,” Uncle Li says. “This is old Sanskrit. Ancient text.”
“Sanskrit? Like from India?” I ask.
He nods, then sits for a few minutes, paging through the text and not saying much.
“So,” I say, unable to handle the suspense any longer. “Can you read any of it?”
“I’ll get the lay of the book first. I want to know what I’m looking at.”
“Is
there anything I can do?” I ask, wanting some kind of distraction.
“Perhaps you should sketch the interior of the tower so we’ll have it for future reference,” he says. I know he’s making busy work for me, but I’m grateful to have something to do. I sketch while he reads, but I find it hard to concentrate. Who could?
“Eventually they’ll come looking, right?” I ask.
“Excuse me?” Uncle Li replies, not looking up from the book.
“For us! You know, they’ll come looking, right?”
“But who would look down here? We are the only ones who know about it!” Then I think of Barend Schlacter. Had he found this place? I think it’s time to come clean.
“Um, Uncle Li?” I say with a wince. “There’s one thing I haven’t mentioned yet.”
He looks at me sideways and says, “What?”
“Okay, first let me say that I wasn’t trying to keep secrets from you or anything. I just thought that you might think this was all too dangerous for me and then tell my parents.”
“What?” he asks firmly.
“Well, this guy came here a few days ago. His name was Barend Schlacter and he was pretending to be from the Scottish Tourist Board to approve us opening the Inn.”
“Pretending? When was this?”
“The night before you got here. Mom and Dad were both out, so I was upstairs alone.”
“He came to your room?”
I nod. “He said that I need to leave secrets alone and that if he finds out that my parents know anything he will …” I can’t say the rest out loud.
“What? He will what?”
I look down. “He will make me an orphan,” I say quietly.
“You really should have told me, Caity,” he says, shaking his head. “You really should have told me.”
“I know, I’m sorry. I thought you’d tell my parents or the police or—”
An air bubble in the fountain makes a loud gurgling sound and we both jump.
“Did he say who he really was, who he worked for?” Uncle Li asks.
“Well, that’s the other thing … remember the spiral that mentioned the Fraternitas? I think that’s who he works for. He had the letters FRO tattooed on his wrist.”
A flash goes off in my head. “Wait a minute!” I say as I get up and run over to the fountain. I push my whole arm through the pipe that carries water outside.
Uncle Li comes over. “Ah! Are you thinking of sending a note through the pipe?”
Mr. Papers jumps up onto the fountain to see what we’re looking at. “No,” I say as I point to the little monkey. “I’m thinking about sending him through the pipe.”
“Do you think he would go?”
“He can definitely fit,” I say, sizing him up next to the pipe.
With both of us staring at Mr. Papers, he gets that something is up. His little eyes go from me to Uncle Li and back again without moving his head. He takes a step back, so I kneel down until I am eye level. “Okay pal, you need to get help. Mrs. Findlay—go find Mrs. Findlay.”
He nods his head up and down and runs to the door. I follow him and show him that the door is locked. “No door,” I say, carrying him back down the steps and putting him on the edge of the fountain. I make that gesture like your hands are fins, and say, “Swim? In water?”
Mr. Papers cups his hand and draws some water to his mouth.
“No, swim,” I say, plunging my whole arm into the pipe. He looks at me with his head cocked and then glances over at the water again like I’m crazy. He points to the water, then to his chest and looks at me to see if that’s really what I mean. “Yes! Good!” I say. “Swim!”
He puts a foot in and then draws it out quickly and shakes it with disgust, like a cat that has just stepped in a mud puddle.
“Can monkeys swim?” I ask.
“Sure. But whether he wants to or not is another story,” he says, skeptical eyebrow raised.
I remember that he’ll need the rabbit-ears key to get back in here, so I take it from around my neck and put it around his. I have to wrap the string twice for it to be secure enough. Then I put my hands together and plead, “Please, Mr. Papers, please. We need your help.”
He seems to understand my desperation and gets a little closer to the water.
“Swim?” I ask one more time and he nods.
The pipe is more than big enough for a small monkey, and since there’s a current I figure he will get pushed out even if he doesn’t use his arms. Still, though, I feel terrible seeing the last of his tail, now wet and a fraction of its normal size, go down the pipe. We notice the water slowly backing up behind him and I hold my breath until it flushes through.
“That was good thinking, Caity,” Uncle Li says as he puts a hand on my shoulder.
“Thanks,” I say as we head back to the stairs and the book. “I just hope it works.”
“Can we talk more about this Barend Schlacter now?” Uncle Li asks.
“I’m sorry Uncle Li, I just can’t right now. Can we discuss it later?”
Uncle Li nods, but doesn’t look happy about it.
I dive right back into sketching so I don’t have to think about what I just did to that poor little monkey. By the time I finish drawing the inside of the tower, I figure at least an hour has gone by. Turning back to the beginning of the sketchbook, which I started on the trip out here, I leaf through my first drawings: San Francisco as we were leaving, our lion’s-head door knocker, the café on the corner, the Golden Gate Bridge at dusk, the front of our tall skinny Victorian house.
Pages later are some sketches of the big dark castle in Edinburgh, which (you can tell just by looking at it) has to be haunted, and some sketches of the train station there. Then there’s my first sketch of our castle. Now knowing it as well as I do, I can tell what’s out of proportion and wrong about the picture.
I hear someone fumbling at the door and instinctively run for the darkest corner and Uncle Li turns off his lantern and joins me. Because the two other corners are lit up, we are invisible in the dark where we are. I see the door open and the dim light of a small flashlight.
I can’t tell who it is until he says, “Hello? Hello?”
“It’s Tenzo!” I whisper. He must hear me because the flashlight swings around to the corner we’re in and shines directly on us.
Caity? Dr. Li? Is that you?” He shines the flashlight on his face so it lights up and I see that Mr. Papers is on his shoulder. “Look, it’s me, Dr. Tenzo.”
I’m now totally confused about how he is behaving, and I’m pissed that Mr. Papers is with him; Tenzo must have grabbed the poor little guy on his way to find Mrs. Findlay.
“Why did you lock us down here?” I ask.
Uncle Li holds my hand as the flashlight comes back in our direction.
“What are you talking about?” Tenzo says as he comes down the stairs toward us.
Uncle Li and I take a step back, which puts us against the wall. The flashlight beam in our eyes makes it impossible for us to see him.
“Let’s not play games here,” Uncle Li says.
Tenzo replies, “Listen, I don’t know what you think I’ve done—”
“So you’re denying you locked us down here to translate these Sanskrit books?” I yell.
Tenzo laughs. “I’m one of the preeminent scholars of ancient languages. Why would I need you to translate anything for me?”
“Oh,” I say, deflated and confused.
Uncle Li strikes a match to light his lantern and the room brightens up again. Tenzo looks around, amazed. I look at Uncle Li and shake my head—I hadn’t wanted him to see the tower.
“Well, then how did you end up down here? And what are you snooping around for all the time?” I ask. I look at Mr. Papers on Tenzo’s shoulder and wonder why he’s not running over to me. Maybe he’s mad at me for shoving him into a wet pipe. When I pat my thigh he finally hops off of Tenzo and into my arms, still damp.
“Look, I didn’t go on the whisky tour. I wa
s in the parlor reading the newspaper and having some tea and your monkey ran in soaking wet, grabbed my newspaper, and tore it up. He started building an origami tower, and then he made two people and put them inside the tower. After that, he motioned for me to follow him and I did. That’s the whole story.”
Tenzo is wearing a blue button-down shirt and there are long, dark sweat stains coming from his armpits. His glasses slip a bit down his nose, which are also beaded with sweat.
“And Mr. Papers was able to open the panel?” Uncle Li asks.
“He showed me where to put the key—fascinating that the three hares were used, by the way. Then he led me into the chamber, where, I must admit, I saw all the Drocane writing.”
“You know what those symbols are? The writing in the square spirals?” I ask.
“Yes, it’s a little-known script called Drocane. It’s actually my specialty,” he replies.
“What are the chances of that?” Uncle Li asks as he looks at me. “So if you had nothing to do with this, then who locked us down here?” he asks.
“I have no idea. Honestly, there is quite a lot I haven’t told you about why I’m here, but I had nothing to do with locking you in.” His eyes wander to the books Uncle Li is clutching. “I would like to look at the ancient Sanskrit books though.”
I want to get out of the tower while we can so I suggest we leave and meet in the parlor. I hustle Tenzo through the chamber and my room as quickly as possible, then lock my door and take a moment to catch my breath.
By the time I get to the parlor, Uncle Li and Tenzo have already requested tea. Mrs. Findlay brings it in along with a three-tiered tray of goodies. Once she leaves, Uncle Li starts right in. “I believe you were going to explain yourself?” he says.
The Daykeeper's Grimoire Page 13
