The man tossed and turned to face Ethan. His eyes fluttered, then opened. Ethan melted back into the shadows and slipped after the others.
‘Who’s there?’ bellowed a harsh voice from the bed. ‘Is someone there? Guards, fetch me a candle.’
Ethan disappeared through the door and closed it softly, just as another door flung open on the other side of the room.
‘Here’s your candle, my lord,’ murmured a muffled voice. ‘No, my lord, there appears to be no-one here. Yes, of course, my lord. We will investigate further.’
Ethan raced after the others through a long dressing room, hung with dozens of fabulous silken gowns, cloaks, furs and petticoats. His running image flickered in the long mirror hung down one wall. Dozens of shoes, boots and slippers lay in rows like soldiers waiting to do battle.
Roana looked neither to left nor right. She ran down the long corridor and paused briefly at the door at the other end, listening for signs of life.
She ushered the others through the door, then, taking the key from the dressing room side, locked the door from the other side. The children all paused, taking in the details of this new room.
‘Our nursery,’ breathed Roana. ‘This is where Caspar and I slept when we were younger.’
Three beds were pushed against the wall to make room for the toys. A huge wooden castle, filled with painted knights, ladies, horses, wizards, dragons, king and queen, took up the centre of the room. On another side stood a tall doll’s house fitted with tiny lifelike furniture.
On the shelves were crammed bowls and spillikins, hoops and balls, cuddly rag dolls and threadbare teddy bears, and hundreds of books. More books than the village children had seen in their whole lives.
‘I think the guards are after us,’ Ethan panted. ‘Shall we go out that door?’
‘That door leads into the main corridor, which is probably guarded, but I have an idea,’ Roana explained. ‘There is a dumbwaiter that leads right down into the kitchens. It is a shelf on a pulley system so the cook could send our meals up here directly from the kitchens. We might just be able to squeeze in one at a time and hide down in the kitchens. We could get some food and find somewhere safe to look at the box.’
Roana strode to the wall, beside the bookcase. The timber panelling ran right around the room, but one panel was cleverly crafted to slide up, revealing the dumbwaiter behind.
‘You first, Roana,’ ordered Ethan. ‘We must get you away safely.’ Roana looked inclined to argue, but at that moment the door handle leading to the dressing room started to turn, then was shaken vigorously as the turner realised it was locked.
Roana slid up into the opening and crouched on the shelf. The others let down the rope pulley that operated it.
The guards started banging on the door.
‘Open this door at once. Who’s in there?’
The banging turned to pounding, then smashing as the guards tried to knock the door down. Lily crawled in next, snagging her hair on the panelling in her haste.
Saxon and Ethan hoisted a quivering Aisha into the hole and sent her down, her big brown eyes staring mournfully at the boys as she disappeared into the darkness. Saxon had difficulty folding his tall frame into the small space but soon he too was away.
The door started to splinter and shudder. Ethan climbed in, pulled down the panel behind him, and started to let himself down with the rope pulley just as the door burst open from the might of four soldiers battering it with a chest.
The soldiers poured into the room. Ethan could just see through a tiny crack at the base of the panel. He did not dare to move or even breathe. The soldiers started to search the room thoroughly, looking under beds and behind toys, opening chests and wardrobes.
A fifth soldier swept into the room. Ethan recognised him at once – Captain Malish again. His black eyes swept the room. Ethan was almost sure he could see right through the panel to Ethan cowering in his cramped hidey-hole.
‘The door?’ Captain Malish barked.
A soldier scurried over to the second door and tried it.
‘It is locked, sir, from this side.’
‘There’s nothing here, sir,’ remarked another soldier, with a quick salute.
‘Look again,’ growled Captain Malish, swirling on his heels and sweeping out of the room.
The soldiers resumed their search but again found nothing. Ethan’s legs were cramping, his muscles screaming at the unnatural position they had been in for so long. Yet he was scared to move the dumbwaiter in case a slight noise gave him away.
Captain Malish returned.
‘Nothing, sir,’ murmured a nervous-sounding guard.
‘Two of you, guard the door outside in the corridor,’ Captain Malish ordered. ‘Two of you guard outside this door. Call me if you see or hear anything. I will go and report back to Governor Lazlac.’
The soldiers scurried to do as they were bid.
Ethan quietly closed the remaining slit of the panel, then slowly, carefully let out the rope pulley.
His heart thumped painfully. At last he reached the bottom. Four anxious faces peered in at him.
Aisha whined, snuffling him with her black muzzle. The other four all whispered furiously over each other.
‘Where have you been?’ Lily exclaimed.
‘What have you been doing?’ Saxon said.
‘Why did you take so long?’ Roana whispered. ‘We thought the Sedah guards had caught you for sure!’
Lily gave him a big hug as Ethan slithered ungracefully out of the cramped opening. ‘Thank the Moon Goddess you are all right.’
‘What now, Roana?’ asked Ethan wearily. ‘Are there any more secret passages, sliding panels or hidden doorways we need to crawl through? Where are we now?’
‘In the pantry,’ replied Roana with twinkling eyes. ‘And it looks as though our wonderful Cookie is still cooking her precious heart out. Look what I have found – a freshly baked egg and bacon pie, cold roast chicken, lemon tarts, strawberries and raspberries from the garden, and a jug of creamy custard. You are so lucky we waited for you, Ethan!’
Saxon had found a box of candles, and they lit one with a tinderbox.
They all sat cross-legged on the floor with their backs leaning against plump flour sacks. They found some clean cloths to spread on the floor, then hungrily helped themselves to ‘Cookie’s’ stores.
Saxon used one of the jewelled daggers from the Treasure Chamber to cut thick wedges of egg and bacon pie, the pastry crumbly and delicious. Ethan carved the chicken using another golden dagger.
Aisha lay between Lily and Ethan, swallowing her share whole and licking up the crumbs. Charcoal came out to play for the first time in many hours, chewing delicately on a shred of chicken breast, then prancing prettily around the dancing shadows from the candle.
Lily found a jug of freshly squeezed lemonade, which they drank out of their mugs.
Finally the last lemon tart had been eaten, and the last drip of custard licked from the jug. Ethan lay contentedly against his flour sack. He leant over to his pack and pulled out the carved box and started fiddling with it again, pressing panels, pulling edges and rubbing carvings.
‘Do you think this could possibly contain the gems we’ve been searching for?’ he asked lazily. He yawned and rubbed his eyes.
‘What time is it?’ asked Lily, catching Ethan’s infectious yawn. ‘How long is it since we found the entrance to the tunnels – it must be days, or nights!’
‘I don’t know, but I could do with a good sleep now,’ agreed Saxon, rubbing his pleasantly full tummy. He rolled over to get more comfortable, then felt a hard lump in his pocket.
Saxon sat up suddenly.
‘Oh, I forgot,’ Saxon exclaimed, looking slightly sheepish. ‘I picked up a couple of things I thought might come in handy. I borrowed a bag of your father’s gold, Roana. I thought we might need it on this quest … and I didn’t think he’d mind.’
Saxon pulled out a soft leather pouch, filled with go
lden coins stamped on one side with the flaming sun, and on the other with the crescent moon. The gold sparkled and shimmered in the candlelight. Saxon handed the bag rather reluctantly to Roana.
She smiled at him as she took the bag and stowed it in her pack. ‘Good idea. Much better that we use it than letting the Sedah send it all to Emperor Raef. So what else did you “pick up”?’
‘I don’t know if it will be any use but in your parents’ bed chamber I saw an envelope on the desk. It was addressed to His Most Gracious and Powerful Emperor the Fearful Raef. It wasn’t sealed so I pulled the letter out and brought it with me in case it tells us anything helpful about the gems.’
The others drew near, peering at the folded parchment in Saxon’s hands.
‘It doesn’t say anything,’ cried Lily in disappointment.
‘It appears to be gibberish,’ exclaimed Roana. ‘Just a lot of numbers!’
The parchment was penned in a flourishing hand with a string of numbers.
22 10 2 3 14 1.
24 1 13 14 12 15 4 21 15 18 21 21 14 13. 12 18 16 10 12 6 18 3 17 23 24 3 14. 21 4 23 10 1 22 24 3 17 2 3 10 1 2 24 23 2 14 10 13 1 10 16 24 23 3 6 24 13 10 8 2.
21 10 9 21 10 12
Ethan turned to Saxon. ‘It must be a code, like the codes we used to send to each other – just with numbers substituted for letters!’
‘Yes,’ Saxon agreed. ‘I think you must be right. Let’s see if we can crack it.’
‘There are different spacings between the numbers,’ said Lily. ‘Certain numbers seem to be grouped together, so perhaps each group is a word.’
‘Perhaps A equals 1, B equals 2 and so on up to Z at 26,’ suggested Saxon, peering at the parchment.
Ethan scribbled down some letters and numbers.
‘That would make the first word VJBCNA, which doesn’t seem to make sense,’ Ethan observed. ‘Plus that makes it a bit too easy to crack. Perhaps 1 is a completely different letter and it just loops around a bit.’
‘Well, every word needs to have vowels in it, so the most commonly used letters would probably be vowels like A, E, I and O,’ Roana said. ‘U is not so commonly used.’
‘Good thinking, Roana,’ Ethan laughed. ‘So which letters appear most frequently?’
‘There are quite a few 14s, 1s and 10s,’ Lily observed.
‘Also quite a few 24s and 21s,’ Saxon added. ‘Here the number 21 is repeated inside the word as if it’s a double E or double O.’
Ethan scribbled down the numbers that appeared frequently.
‘There are lots of 10s so that could be E, and if we work forwards from that the first word would be Q E W X I V – it still doesn’t make sense!’
The four children pored over the parchment, making notes and substituting various numbers and letters, scribbling notes on a scrap of paper for what seemed like hours.
‘What if we try making 14 the letter E,’ suggested Ethan, scrawling down a cipher of letters and numbers.
‘So then … 22 would be M, 10 would be A, 2 would be S, 3 would be T, 14 would be E, 1 would be R. Master! That’s it. It makes sense!’
‘So Emperor Raef has the letter R as the number 1 letter in his alphabet,’ joked Saxon. ‘That figures!’
‘I hope we’re right. Let’s each take a number word and work it out, then put it all together,’ suggested Ethan in excitement.
22 10 2 3 14 1.
24 1 13 14 1 2 15 4 21 15 18 21 21 14 13. 12 18 16 10 1 2 6 18 3 17 23 24 3 14. 21 4 23 10 1 22 23 3 17 2 3 10 1 2 24 23 2 14 10 13 1 10 16 24 23 3 6 24 13 10 8 2.
21 10 9 21 10 12
The message they finally jointly deciphered was this:
Master,
Orders fulfilled. Cigars with note. Lunar Moth Stars on Sea Dragon two days.
Lazlac.
Everyone squirmed in excitement as the words were decoded, but when the final message was put together the disappointment was crushing.
‘It doesn’t make any sense!’ Lily cried, nearly weeping with exhaustion and despair.
‘Maybe it’s a code within a code,’ suggested Ethan hopefully.
‘The Sea Dragon was one of the ships at Goldcoin Cove,’ remembered Saxon. ‘Maybe it sails for Sedah in two days.’
‘Lunar means moon, maybe Lunar Moth is code for Moon Gem,’ suggested Lily. ‘Stars could be referring to the Star Diamonds from the sword.’
‘What about cigars, though,’ asked Roana sceptically. ‘I can’t see any way that cigars could mean Sun Gem?’
‘I don’t know,’ Ethan smiled. ‘Cigars, smoke, fire, sun?’
The others laughed, rubbing their faces in frustration and tiredness.
‘Well, this is the only clue we have,’ Saxon said. ‘Maybe the Moon Pearl and Star Diamonds are sailing on the Sea Dragon in two days. So we need to find the Sea Dragon, and then find out where on board the gems are.’
‘Was there anything else in the packet, Saxon?’ Roana asked.
‘Noooooo.’ Saxon paused. ‘I am sure there was nothing else. Only a lot of papers on the desk.’
‘But,’ Ethan wondered worriedly, ‘if Lord Lazlac discovers the note has gone, he will probably change the arrangements.’
‘Hopefully he won’t notice,’ Saxon smiled. ‘I folded up one of the scrap pieces of paper lying on the desk and put it into the packet ready to be sealed. Hopefully he won’t see the note has changed. I think it was a dinner menu from the cook!’
‘It probably said Egg and Bacon Pie, Roast Chicken, Lemon Tarts, Custard and Fruit! I wonder what poor old Lord Lazlac will get to eat now?’ laughed Ethan, patting his stomach.
Just then there was a faint noise from outside the door, which quietened everyone immediately. Ethan hid the little box in his pack, while Saxon and Lily gathered up the pieces of paper they had been scribbling on and stuffed them in their pockets.
The door swung open. Aisha jumped to her feet, growling softly. The four children cowered back into their flour sacks, but there was nowhere to hide.
At the door a round, cross face peered in, holding up a lantern with a red, work-worn hand.
‘What’s going on in here?’ shouted the face in a furious tone. ‘You thieving beggars. Lord Lazlac will have you whipped. How dare you? How dare you! How did you get in, you little thieves! Street urchins! Oh, my pie and the tarts! That was for his lordship’s luncheon!’
She raised her arm with the lantern as though to whip them with it. Lily, Saxon and Ethan shrank back in consternation.
‘Cookie. Cookie,’ interrupted Roana, tugging at the sleeve of the violently waving arm.
‘Don’t “Cookie” me, you ragamuffin,’ scoffed Cookie, cuffing Roana sharply behind the ear. ‘You’ve no right to call me Cookie. Madam to you, if you please.’
‘Cookie, it’s me, Roana. Princess Roana,’ Roana pleaded, tears filling her eyes from the hard blow.
The round face creased in disbelief. Cookie bent towards the scruffy ragamuffin child in front of her, searching her face for some sign of the proud Princess Roana. Incredulity turned to recognition, then turned to smiles, followed by shock and then tears.
‘Oh my dear, I mean, your royal highness. Oh, we thought you were killed. Oh, I’m so sorry, your highness, I would never have struck you if I’d known. Oh, can you forgive me? Oh, I can’t believe it …’ Cookie rambled on for a few minutes, until Roana gave her a huge bear hug.
‘Oh, Cookie. I am sorry we ate all your food, but it was so delicious and we were so hungry and we have been chased by Sedah guards and been lost in tunnels and we are so tired and it is so good to see you!’ Roana cried.
The others looked very relieved that Cookie had turned from a vengeful threat to a beaming friend.
Cookie tut-tutted over them. She bustled them out of the pantry and snuck them down the corridors and up the stairs to her own little bed chamber in the servants’ quarters.
‘No-one will think to come in here,’ she promised. ‘I’ll make short work of any Sedah guards who dare to interfere in m
y kitchen. They like my cooking too much! I will work out a way to get you out of the palace as soon as you have had a hot bath, a good sleep and a proper meal. Now give me those revolting rags and I will try to wash them for you.’
She dragged in a big tin bath, which she filled with scalding hot water for each child. The soap smelt of lavender, a soothing, comforting scent that lathered up to wash away all traces of the tunnels, dungeons and secret ways.
‘Just a quick one, mind,’ Cookie ordered as she dragged over a screen to hide the bath from the others. ‘His lordship will be wanting his breakfast soon.’
Cookie rustled up some cotton nightgowns and nightshirts from the linen stores for them to change into. Soon she had the girls tucked up top to toe, in her wide box bed with its soft goose feather mattress, patchwork quilt and downy pillows. The boys had a couple of thick feather comforters on the floor.
She brought them all big mugs of frothy hot chocolate milk, with flakes of rich dark chocolate on top. Lily, Ethan and Saxon had never tasted anything so delicious.
‘You mean you had this in bed every morning, Roana? I can’t think of anything more wonderful!’ enthused Lily, snuggling down into the fluffy pillows, sipping the delicate froth.
Ethan had been playing with the box while the others had been having their baths and getting changed. His fingers still fiddled with the panels incessantly as he sipped on his chocolate. His fingers had discovered that the centre finger-shaped panel on the side of the box felt slightly loose, but nothing would make it move completely. He gave up in disgust and moved on to the base.
Roana came from behind the screen wearing a delicate white nightgown embroidered with flowers and edged with lace. She held something out to Lily.
‘Lily, can you help me with this, please,’ Roana asked. ‘I found it next to Lord Lazlac’s bed – I mean, my parents’ bed. It was my mother’s. I do not know why that beast should have it with him but I will wear it until I can return it to my mother.’
Quest for the Sun Gem Page 19
