“Careful,” said Alfie as Robin caught his foot on one of the large sacks of fruit and vegetables that lined the wall, sending potatoes rolling across the floor. Alfie unlocked the door that led from the undercroft into the main cellars and they made their way down the corridor, detouring through the network of rooms that led off from it. Alfie sorted through the surprisingly large bunch of cellar keys, matching them to locks as they went. One room was lined with large oak casks labelled as elderberry, elderflower, blackberry or fruits he hadn’t even heard of. He was amazed to see they all still had wine in them. Robin pulled the stopper out of a barrel marked ARMAGNAC, 1402. Alfie laughed as he took a deep sniff of the contents and pretended to faint.
“Blimey, why would anyone drink that stuff?”
Most of the other rooms were empty, containing only benches, tables and baskets of blankets and fleeces. Like everything else in the castle, they were in perfect condition.
“Orin’s letter said that the whole village would move into the castle whenever they needed protection,” said Alfie. “I bet this is where some of them slept.”
In one room Robin found a small leather pouch containing a whittling knife and a number of little half-carved wooden animals including a boar, a wolf and a hare. Alfie let him have these under the finders-keepers rule and enjoyed the delighted look on his cousin’s face as he examined the animals one by one, gently brushing away loose wood shavings.
At the far end of the corridor was a heavy studded door with three large padlocks. Alfie unlocked them and hauled the door open. A cool wave of damp-smelling air washed over them. Alfie flicked on his torch and picked out a long flight of stairs that led downwards.
“What do you think is down there?” asked Robin, his voice echoing back at them.
“Let’s find out!” said Alfie, hoping he sounded a lot braver than he felt. He forced himself to move before he had time to chicken out. “Stay close.” He was a little disconcerted by their own echoing footsteps as they descended into a dark, mossy labyrinth, which made the cellars they had just left seem cheery by comparison.
“We must be at lake level now,” said Robin, as they finally reached the bottom.
There were no lights down here and the glow from Alfie’s torch only made the blackness seem even darker. He had to be very careful to remember where they had come from and where they had already been.
After what felt like hours searching the dank, dark cellars, they finally found something interesting in one of the furthest corners: a vast round trapdoor set into the floor. An intricate array of bolts ran around the edge of the ebony wood surface, which bore silver runes that spiralled towards the centre. They looked immediately familiar to Alfie.
While Robin tried to find a way to prise apart the bolts, Alfie quickly checked his talisman. The runes matched. Hadn’t Emily Fortune said that the talisman was also a key? He noticed a small round indentation in the centre of the trapdoor and knew that the talisman would fit it perfectly, but something stopped him from trying it out. There was something ominous about this huge door. Someone had obviously gone to a lot of trouble to seal it, so he wasn’t going to try and unlock it until he knew exactly what was down there.
“Come on,” he said, ushering a protesting Robin away. “It’d take an army to pull that up. We’d better get back upstairs. Dad will be wondering where we are.”
As they were passing through what Alfie had worked out to be the central chamber, Robin stopped moving and shushed him.
“Shh! I just heard something.”
Alfie held his breath and listened carefully. A soft plink-plink broke the silence. “It’s just dripping water,” he said with a sigh of relief. “You nearly gave me a heart attack, Rob!”
“Sorry,” said Robin as he began walking again. “It’s just so creepy down—” He disappeared with a loud splash.
“Robin!” shouted Alfie, his torch picking out a round pool of water in the middle of the room. Robin had tripped over the low stone lip and was thrashing around in the dark water, grasping for the sides. Alfie began to laugh, but quickly saw that something was wrong. “Quick, grab my hands!” he shouted as Robin disappeared beneath the surface. He grasped at Robin’s flailing arms as he resurfaced spluttering – his fingers closed on Robin’s jumper, but his cousin slipped out of it and below the surface. With barely a thought, Alfie kicked off his shoes and leapt into the water, taking a deep breath before diving down. The second he submerged he could feel a strong current dragging him deeper. He scrabbled at the sides but couldn’t grip on to the slippery stones as the current pulled him down and around a bend.
Fighting the impulse to breathe, he found himself tumbling towards a rusted iron grate. As he hit the bars, he felt something soft next to him. Robin. His eyes were bulging and bubbles escaped his mouth as he clung to the grate. He gestured towards an area that seemed almost rusted through and began kicking at it frantically. Alfie joined in, stomping the metal as it began to crumble away in large pieces.
Alfie’s lungs were screaming for air; he was desperate to give in and take a deep breath but he kept on kicking. Finally, a large section of grate broke away and Robin shot through the hole like an eel.
The jagged metal scraped Alfie’s arms as he dragged himself through and out into what could only be Lake Archelon. Weeds grasped at his ankles as he kicked up towards the surface and swam for his life. He could just make out the light of the moon piercing the murky water and kept kicking towards it. His lungs burnt and his waterlogged clothes seemed to be dragging him down. Just as he felt he couldn’t take another stroke, he broke the surface next to Robin and took a huge breath of sweet night air.
It had been horrible for Alfie to see his dad turn so pale as they had staggered into the castle dripping wet, covered in scratches from the iron bars and coated in mud after scrambling up the hill. He patched up their scrapes and made it very clear that they were never to go down into the lower cellars on their own again. From the tone of his voice, Alfie knew better than to try and argue.
Granny had called for help with the festival preparations that afternoon. Alfie’s dad hadn’t told her about their close shave, but sent them straight down to the village hall to be put to work. They found Granny standing amidst strings of bunting, directing the men and women of the organizing committee. Alfie watched with admiration as she sent them all about their allocated jobs, painting or renovating props and stages. The hall was a hive of activity.
“About time, boys,” she called. “I was about to come and drag you out of bed myself. Now, into the kitchen. You’re on pumpkin-carving duty.”
Before Alfie could say a word, she had swept them into the big catering kitchen with its huge ovens and tea urns. Every surface was covered in pumpkins of all shapes and sizes. There was a horrified gasp from the far corner and they turned to see Madeleine staring at them amidst a sea of stringy pulp and seeds. She leapt up and made a dash for the door but it slammed shut before she was even halfway. She let out a yell and pounded on the door as a key turned loudly in the lock. Seconds later, the serving hatch snapped open and Granny’s head popped through, a mischievous glint in her eyes.
“This door won’t open until you three sort yourselves out. Madeleine has been driving me crazy, moping around my cottage for days. Hopefully some creative hard work will get you three on good terms again. Drinks and sandwiches are in the fridge. Now, get busy!” The hatch snapped shut.
“What if we need the loo?” called Robin.
“Then you’d better make up sooner rather than later,” called Granny’s distant voice.
“I should have guessed she’d try something like this,” said Robin, slumping against a cabinet and picking up a large pumpkin. She means it – she’ll leave us in here all night if she has to.”
“What about it, Maddie?” asked Alfie hopefully. “Friends?”
Madeleine continued carving, showing no si
gn of having heard him. Alfie shrugged helplessly at Robin then sat down on the floor and got to work on a pumpkin. Robin sighed and joined him.
Halfway through hollowing out his third pumpkin, Robin brought up the subject of the huge sealed door in the lower cellars. As he spoke, Alfie noticed Madeleine slowing down in her work. She didn’t look their way, but he could tell she was listening intently.
Alfie pulled the talisman out of his shirt and showed it to Robin. “There’s no way I’m opening that thing until I’ve asked Caspian about it, but I’m sure that this is the key – it matches the markings exactly.”
“What if it’s something really valuable?” said Robin. “Like gold. Maybe that’s what the dragon is after!”
“Do dragons really love gold, or is that just a myth?” said Alfie.
“Until last week we thought dragons were just stories. Who knows what they’re really like?”
Alfie had to accept Robin’s point. He hardly knew what to believe any more.
“Do you think it’s lonely?” he said as he jabbed two eyes into his pumpkin. “I mean, it must be the last of its kind. I’ve never heard of anyone else seeing—”
They both jumped as two loud bangs on the counter above interrupted their conversation. Madeleine stood looking down at them, arms folded. Next to her were the two pumpkins she had been carving.
“Here’s what’s happening,” she said sharply. “I’ll admit that there wasn’t anything you could say to Mum and Dad to make them believe me, so I’m going to forgive you…”
“Really?” said Alfie. “That’s so big of you Madeleine, thank—”
“IF!” continued Madeleine, “you admit that you were a couple of pigs for not backing me up. Agreed?”
“But you just said that there was nothing we could say,” said Robin. Alfie prodded him in the ribs.
“Agreed. We were a couple of pigs,” said Alfie, happy that Madeleine was finally talking to them again. “We’ll always back you up in future.”
“Well?” Madeleine asked Robin. Alfie gave him another prod.
“OK,” said Robin looking anywhere but at Madeleine. “Agreed.”
“Right, now you’re going to tell me everything about the cellars and that thing on the barn – and don’t even think about exploring any more of the castle without me. One more thing,” she added before Alfie or Robin could say another word. She nodded towards the two pumpkins on the counter into each of which she had carved a pig snout. “This one is you,” she said to Alfie, pointing at a pumpkin with a twisted face, crossed eyes and buck teeth. “The other one is you,” she told Robin. His pumpkin was even uglier.
Alfie stared at the pumpkins in stunned surprise. “Wow,” he said finally, looking from the pumpkin to Robin. “She’s captured you perfectly.” They both burst out laughing; even Madeleine couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from twisting into a smile.
“She’s got you just right too,” said Robin turning to Alfie. “If it had a body I wouldn’t be able to tell which was the real you.”
Alfie picked up a large handful of sloppy pulp and threw it at Robin. He ducked out of the way and it skimmed the top of his head to hit Madeleine square in the chest. With a shriek, she picked up two handfuls of the orange goo and threw them, scoring direct hits on both Alfie and Robin’s faces. When Granny opened the door to see what all the noise was about, Alfie and the twins were rolling on the floor laughing, covered from head to toe in pumpkin guts.
“Well, I see you’ve been busy. Does this mean you’re all friends again?”
Alfie looked at Madeleine, eyebrows raised as he fished seeds out of the back of his jumper.
“For now,” she said primly as a large glob of pumpkin slid from her head and on to the floor with a splat.
The next morning, Alfie thought his dad was acting strangely as they ate breakfast in the Great Hall. He was fidgeting a lot and seemed to be trying not to grin as they talked about birthday plans for the following day. Alfie had decided it was pointless having a party at the castle as his birthday was on the opening night of the Samhain festival. The celebrations would be like a party anyway, but with the whole village there.
A tinkling bell broke through their conversation and they turned to see Ashford standing by the doorway. Once he had their attention, he cleared his throat and said, “Announcing the arrival of Miss Amy Siu.”
“Hey, Al,” said Amy nonchalantly as she strolled into the room and took a seat at the table as if she’d lived there all her life.
“Amy!” yelled Alfie amazed to see his best friend suddenly appear in his new home. “When did you get here?”
“I picked her up from the train station late last night,” said his dad, looking rather proud of himself. “Amy will be staying with us for a few days.”
“You didn’t think I’d miss your birthday did you?” she asked in mock surprise, tucking into the blueberry pancakes Ashford had placed in front of her. “By the way,” she added, spraying crumbs across the table, “I wasn’t allowed to leave my room last night in case I bumped into you, so I want the full tour as soon as we finish breakfast. This place is awesome!”
Alfie’s dad headed into town to pick up some equipment for his workshop while Alfie showed Amy around the castle and filled her in on everything that had happened to him since the move to Hexbridge. He even showed her Orin’s letter and could hardly believe how easily she accepted the existence of flying rugs, dragons, druids and magic – saying simply, “Yeah, well, legends have to come from somewhere.”
In the afternoon, Ashford served Alfie and Amy afternoon tea at the table in the library where they were taking a break from exploring to read comics.
“These are even better than Gran’s!” said Amy, working her way through the many varieties of sandwiches, cakes and treats on the cake stand as Ashford poured them cups of blackcurrant juice from a china teapot. “But don’t tell her I said that.” She cast a sharp glance at Alfie and Ashford.
Ashford winked. “Your secrets are as safe as my own.”
“I like him,” said Amy as Ashford left the room.
“You don’t think there’s something a little bit weird about him?” asked Alfie.
“Like what?”
“He was a bit grouchy when he first arrived, and he knew the castle inside out without even being shown around. He can cook anything we want or get anything we need in minutes, and he just seems so … well … amused all of the time!”
Amy looked at him with one eyebrow raised. “So, what? You’re worried because he’s a really good butler? And since when is being happy a crime?” Alfie shrugged. “Well then, there you go. Now, more importantly, this dragon – what are you going to do about it?”
It was a question that had been bothering Alfie for some time. Who do you tell if you know a dragon is on the loose? Even if he could find someone that would believe it, what could they even do about it? “I have no idea. I thought there might be something in Orin’s study on how to banish dragons, but I still haven’t found the way in.”
“Did you try searching this room?” burped Amy as she got up and looked around. “Makes sense that it would be near the library.”
“First place I looked,” said Alfie, finishing the last of the biscuits. “I tried sliding every single one of the panels and pressed every book in the bookcases, but no luck.”
“Maybe that would be too easy. I bet he’s testing you to see if you’re clever enough to find it. Are you sure there were no other hidden messages on the letter?”
Alfie had already checked the letter a dozen times, but he scanned it once again, with and without the talisman. “Nothing,” he sighed.
Amy ran her fingers over the intricately carved panels on the wall around the fireplace. “I bet it’s behind here.” She set about twisting the lamps and prodding the tiles, but Alfie had already tried them all. If only Orin coul
d give him another clue – or had he already? Alfie looked down at the talisman. Could Orin’s letter be a clue to finding the study after all? He put the lens to his eye and scanned the library. Almost immediately a flicker of light from a panel near Amy caught his eye. He rushed towards it to find a small circle drawn on the wood in the same glowing ink as Orin’s letter.
“See something?” asked Amy.
“Another message from Orin,” said Alfie, sitting back on his heels and examining the images engraved into the panel. The circle had been drawn around the sun, which was indented into the wood. When he looked really closely, he could just about make out some small runic symbols, like the ones on his talisman. “I think it’s a kind of keyhole.”
“So where’s the key?” asked Amy.
Alfie took the talisman from around his neck and pressed it to the indentation. A thrill ran through him as it clicked into place.
“Genius!” cried Amy, as the talisman began to rotate anticlockwise.
After three turns it was released, and the panel swung open before them. Barely hesitating, they stepped through to find themselves in another room lined with shelves. As well as hundreds of books, the shelves held jars of all shapes and sizes containing coloured powders, herbs and dried-up liquids. A large chair sat next to the fireplace. They had found Orin Hopcraft’s study. Alfie marvelled that there wasn’t a speck of dust in sight. It looked as if the druid had just popped out for something, yet the room must have lain empty for hundreds of years.
“Just look at these books,” said Amy, reading the titles on the spines. “A Seer’s Guide to Translating Visions, Herbs for Health and Happiness, Egypt’s Lost Magicks, Forgotten Beasts of the British Isles, Predicting Plagues and Blizzards with Lizards’ Gizzards.” Alfie smiled, he was sure Madeleine would be more impressed with these few shelves than Robin was with the whole library.
Alfie Bloom and the Secrets of Hexbridge Castle Page 11
