Jasper reached the top of the stairs, where Bo Peep stood watch. “Keep an eye on them,” Jasper said. “The only way in is down there.”
Bo Peep’s eyebrows rose above his dark spectacles. Jasper ran toward his room. On his way, he passed Miss Brett’s, where the teacher grabbed a handbag—something, perhaps, to put the box inside.
Jasper looked at his teacher. “Lucy’s bunny doll.”
Miss Brett kissed the boy on the head. He was ever the thoughtful brother. “I’ll get it,” she said. She handed the bag to Jasper. She ran to Lucy’s room to get her bunny doll. “Put anything else we might need in the bag and meet us downstairs.”
Jasper needed some things from his room. As he ran down the hall, though, the box began to quiver, and shook more and more as he got closer to his room. What was happening to it? He wanted to open the box. But for now, he had to ignore it. One minute was all he had.
Once in his room, Jasper’s mind raced. He wanted to grab string, wire, and a few tools he might need, but there wasn’t time. What could he use? He couldn’t think. Then he recalled the electric torches. He grabbed one sitting on his nightstand and threw it in his bag. As he ran from the room, the box seemed to calm. Jasper continued into the other rooms, retrieving a torch from Faye’s room and Miss Brett’s birthday torch, which she had left behind.
“I couldn’t think of what to bring. I didn’t have time,” said Wallace as he rushed down the steps, adjusting his glasses. “I just grabbed a torch.” He had welded a metal ring around his own new electric torch so that it hung from his neck on a string. “And a couple magnets and a few extra bulbs.” He had the magnets and bismuth in his now rather bulging pocket. He put the bulbs in the pocket with the coin so they wouldn’t get crushed. His mind was racing, trying to think of what else to bring.
Downstairs, Faye grabbed the snowball machine, which sat by the window. She put it in the carpet bag she found hanging on a hook by the door
“That?” Noah said.
“It’s a weapon now.” Faye tried to sound sure of herself.
“Then I wish we had ten,” Noah said. Faye nodded, appreciative.
“We need more torches,” Wallace said, suddenly turning to head back upstairs. “It will only take me two minutes to assemble—”
“No time,” growled Bo Peep, now at the bottom of the steps. “Must go.”
“Come, children.” Miss Brett tried to sound calm.
“Hey, stand back,” Noah told Wallace as they started for the door. Wallace looked crestfallen, but Noah winked and pointed to the compass. The magnets were keeping his compass from giving an accurate reading. Wallace nodded and understood.
Jasper reached for Lucy’s hand, but she ran to their teacher. The little girl followed Miss Brett, clinging to her skirt, not wanting to open her eyes, because that would mean everything was real and Signora Fornaio was dead. Jasper looked down at his hand, holding no one. He swallowed hard.
Noah looked over at Lucy and looked at his compass. He knelt down so he could speak to Lucy face to face.
“Lucy, will you be in charge of this?” he asked, his voice serious and meaningful. “We’ll need the compass. I think you should carry it.”
Lucy nodded and clung to the compass as if it contained all the answers they needed.
Noah gave her a big hug and kissed her cheek. Faye saw this and felt an odd affection for Noah.
“You’re a good man, Noah,” said Faye.
Noah felt the lump in his throat. The ice queen had a real heart, he decided. Faye was indeed human.
Outside, the wind seemed crueler. Though the snow was not falling as heavily, the wind seemed to get in-between every thread on every hat, scarf, and overcoat. Bo Peep used his crook almost like an oar, pulling himself against the wind. They were heading through the gardens. “If anyone is watching, they’ll know where we’re going if we just head down the road to the chapel,” Jasper said.
They edged around the house and began the climb down through the terraced gardens. Wallace and Lucy each clung to one of Miss Brett’s hands. Wallace was not going to let go of her. Miss Brett could feel the strength of his grip. He cannot afford to lose anyone else, she thought.
At the beast garden, Lucy dropped her bunny doll.
“Wait!” she cried, and let go of Miss Brett.
“No!” cried Bo Peep.
“Lucy!” cried Miss Brett, who had been holding Lucy by the arm. But then it was too late. Again,
“Lucy!” cried Jasper as he reached for the little girl but missed.
“Miss Brett!” cried Wallace, still clinging to her hand.
“Wallace!” cried Faye, as Wallace vanished before her eyes.
It all happened in a flash, as if by magic. Miss Brett, Lucy, and Wallace had all disappeared.
Jasper grabbed the crook from Bo Peep’s hand. He leaned into the pedestal. “Can you hear me?!” he cried, rapping Bo Peep’s crook against the stone,
“They can hear you,” Faye said. “We could before and it makes a very big difference.”
There was a faint sound from below,
“Don’t move. We’re going to try to find a way in there.” But Jasper, picking up his electric torch, did not know how.
Lucy slipped slowly down Miss Brett’s skirt, landing with a soft plop on the floor of the cave.
“Give me your hands!” Miss Brett called out in the dark. The space smelled of dirt and age, of roots and stone. She had only a glimpse of their prison, but she could see that on one side was a pile of rubble. If there had been a tunnel, the way out was blocked, perhaps by a collapse as long ago as centuries.
Lucy felt for her teacher’s hand. Wallace adjusted his glasses, which had been hanging from an ear, although, in the dark, he could see nothing anyway
“Wallace?” Miss Brett called. Then she felt his hand in hers.
“I can’t find my bunny doll!” Lucy cried.
Miss Brett felt around on the floor, her hand brushing over what were surely the dry bones of a small animal, long dead. Then she felt the doll. She handed it to the little girl.
Lucy snuffled, clinging to the doll. Then she gasped.
“And I’ve lost Noah’s compass!” She began to cry anew.
“I’m sure we’ll find it when they come for us, sweet angel.” Miss Brett caressed Lucy’s hair until the little girl was calmer. Then she turned her head back toward the pile of rubble, her mind at work. She couldn’t see it well in the dark, but she wondered if they could somehow get through it.
“Is that a tunnel on the other side of the fallen rocks? Did you ever go through it, Lucy?” Miss Brett asked. “Do you know? Was it open the last time you were here?” She could feel Lucy shake her head. Miss Brett’s hopes fell.
“Wallace,” Miss Brett said, suddenly remembering. “Your electric torch.”
Wallace shook his torch and flipped the switch. Light filled the space. Miss Brett felt relief—but only for a moment. With a small pop, the light went out,
“It’s the bulb,” said Wallace. “I have more, but I can’t see to replace it.”
“Can you try in the dark?” asked Miss Brett.
Wallace considered this. Yes, he could, but then if he dropped the bulbs, they’d be entirely out of luck. “I’ll try, but it might take a while.”
“We’re in no hurry, sweet angel,” Miss Brett said.
There was nothing to do but sit in the dark. And wait,
“Why?” Faye didn’t even try to keep her voice down as she and Noah raced after Jasper, nearly dropping the torch she held in her hand.
“Because we need his help!” Jasper called back, chasing after Bo Peep.
“We could do it like last time,” said Faye, reaching out for Jasper’s arm but missing.
“There isn’t time,” said Jasper, determined. “It’s not like last time when we were playing in the garden. We’re up against Komar Romak.” They did not have time to figure out the magical spot and retrieve Lucy, Wallace, and Miss Brett from
the garden of the beasts— not with Komar Romak around here somewhere. They had to enter another way and, as they ran to follow Bo Peep, they assumed that is where they were headed.
And then Jasper stopped, having nearly run past the chapel. Faye almost crashed into him. Noah knocked her over as he plowed into her, slipping as he tried to brace himself against the collision. Glaring at Noah, Faye righted herself using his head, knocking him back onto the ground.
“He went in there.” Jasper pointed and began climbing through the ruined entrance.
“Why?” asked Noah, following Jasper and Faye.
“The tunnel,” Jasper said. “I wonder—”
“Yes!” Faye whipped her head around. “That’s it! Or it could be.”
“What?” Noah rubbed his bottom as he stood.
“The tunnel, the one hidden in the beast garden. One side was full of rubble, remember? It was blocking a tunnel.” Faye and Jasper both looked up at the manor house and followed the possible path the underground tunnel might take.
“It’s got to be the same one!” said Faye, commanding it to be true.
But when the three children entered the chapel, Bo Peep was nowhere to be found.
“Where did he go?” Noah asked as they all looked around.
“He must have thought we were right behind him.” Jasper, too, was looking around the room.
“How can we find the entrance?” Noah followed their gaze.
“We’ve got to try,” Jasper said, heading for the archway. Once again, Noah followed Jasper and Faye.
“It’s got to be the same one!” Faye insisted.
They went immediately to the vestry, the small chamber off the main room of the chapel. They looked around at the fresco paintings, the broken rafter above, the archway that separated the familiar pieces of the ruined chapel. There was the blank wall—the one that had taken them into the tunnels on Christmas Eve. But the wall now was really just a wall. The crack that had run lengthwise was not even visible.
“Do you think that, maybe, all the tunnels are connected?” Noah said, scratching his ear.
“It would make sense,” said Faye. “There must have been a secret passageway, built by the people who built the manor house.”
“Or before the manor house, in ancient times,” Jasper said, considering the ancient carvings in the tunnels. He felt along the wall but could not find the trigger to open the door
Noah pulled something out of his pocket. It was his compass. “Lucy dropped it before she fell in the hole,” he said. He faced the compass towards the manor. “The collapsed tunnel in the beast garden faces southeast, right, Faye?”
He indicated the direction, and Faye nodded. She remembered from when she was down there.
“That’s northwest of where we are.” Noah turned. “This means . . . yes, they could be connected. If we find the entrance, we can take another reading inside the passageway and see if we can find the same collapse.” Jasper was touching the walls in the alcove. There had to be a button or a lever or a switch. There had to be something that opened the chapel wall,
A loud chattering came from above. A raven landed on the broken rafter. He flapped his wings and, as usual, it sounded like clattering stones,
“Get out of here, bird!” cried Faye. But the bird flew down and hopped, flapping his wings and chattering as if yelling at Faye. “What?” Faye demanded. “What do you want?”
Not expecting an answer, Faye jumped back as the bird hopped up to the broken edge of the archway. It flew to the fresco and back to its perch.
“Is it trying to land on the wall?” asked Noah. But the bird did not seem to try to land—only to scratch against the painting. It did this three times before Noah looked more closely at the fresco on the wall,
As Faye carefully ran her fingers over the walls in the archway Noah carefully examined the fresco. The bird was screeching now, hopping and flapping. Noah stared at the painting of the monks where the bird had scratched. And that was when he noticed the flags,
“That’s it!” he said. He pushed the red and white flag. They heard a click, but the wall did not open.
“Look for another flag like that!” Faye cried. “There must be a second button or lever.”
“It’s here!” called Jasper. They had not noticed before, but next to the blank wall, pushed out from the faded fresco, was another painted flag. Next to the flag was a black bird. The first click had somehow exposed this flag. Jasper pushed it, but nothing happened, Faye felt it then. Instead of pushing, she turned it.
The wall cracked open.
In seconds, Faye held the torch Jasper had retrieved from her room, and they were in the tunnel. Within moments, they could no longer hear the chattering of the raven in the chapel. They came to a split in the tunnel, stopped, felt along the wall, and noticed the round impression.
“That’s the place where Wallace fit his coin.”
“It can’t be,” said Faye. “There wasn’t a fork in the tunnel where he found it.”
“There must be more than one,” said Noah.
“If only Lucy was here, she’d remember which way to go.” Jasper pined for his sister, but he knew she was with Miss Brett, and that gave him some relief.
“No, she wouldn’t,” said Faye. “Lucy was asleep when we found the collapsed tunnel.”
Noah looked at the compass. “That way is northwest.” And they followed.
After many twists and turns, they finally came to another fork in the tunnel. One path turned sharply to the left. The other was more or less straight. Again, Jasper saw the round impression. It had to mean something, but he couldn’t imagine what it was.
“I know we did not make any sharp turns when we came down at Christmas,” said Faye, who seemed so sure that the boys went along. “This is a different passageway. When we found the collapsed tunnel, it was when we didn’t follow the man carrying Lucy.” So they remained on the straighter path, hoping they’d be able to have another choice soon.
A few minutes later, they came to another fork, this time with three different tunnels, all of which seemed to be rather straight,
“Now what do we do?” asked Noah.
“We need to try one and hope it’s right,” said Jasper. “We can always head back and try again if we have to.”
“We’ll start here, then,” said Faye, pointing to the tunnel farthest to the left.
“Take this,” came a deep voice.
Noah jumped,
It was Bo Peep, pointing down the tunnel farthest to the right,
“You nearly scared the life right out of me!” cried Noah.
“Nice job, leaving us there on our own,” Faye said.
“I am here,” Bo Peep said.
“We see that,” Jasper said. “But where were you?”
“Yes,” Bo Peep said. “Now I go.”
“What?!” Faye and Noah shouted at once.
“I go to get,” he said, then disappeared into the darkness.
“What is he getting?” asked Noah.
“It doesn’t matter,” said Faye. “This is the right way.” They continued on down the third tunnel. The ground was smoother, and soon, they passed some kind of stone chute,
“Wait!” Jasper stopped, bringing the torch closer to the wall of the tunnel. Again, there were strange carvings and drawings on the wall. But one in particular caught his attention. “This is the path,” he said with absolute certainty.
“How do you know?” asked Faye, looking at the carvings.
“Because this is where Wallace fit his coin,” Jasper said. “This has to be the spot. I remember he put the coin to the wall and it made a noise, like a hum. This spot has scratches on it from when Wallace was trying to get it out.”
“I wish we had the coin,” said Noah. “When it hummed in the wall, it seemed like it had a purpose. Maybe it was opening something.”
Jasper felt along the wall. There were no cracks or grooves, and nothing here to give them a clue as to what that coin m
ight have done.
“Well, we don’t have the coin,” Faye said matter-of-factly as they continued down the passageway. Again, they came to a split. “So where to now?”
Noah checked the compass. “That’s northwest,” he said, pointing down the passage on the left.
Faye shined her torch but the light sputtered. She shook the torch and the flickering light came back, but not as brightly
“I’m worried we’re going to lose the torch. Wallace has the extra bulbs.” Faye shined the light down the passage again.
“Right, yes, I remember. If we go down here, there’s a fork, and the other way is blocked by rubble.” Jasper was running now, the others right behind him.
As they ran, Faye almost tripped on some rocks in the middle of the path. With a sputter, her torch went out.
“What do we do now?” Noah asked in the darkness.
“I still have—look!” cried Jasper, pointing in the darkness. Nobody could see his hand, but they could see the tiny cracks of light coming from the far end of the passageway.
“Does that mean we’re getting close?” asked Noah, hopefully.
But close to what? Jasper didn’t feel like they were coming to the collapsed tunnel yet. No, it was farther—but how much? With the dim light, they didn’t need Jasper’s torch, and as their eyes adjusted, they managed to avoid some of the rubble littering their path,
“This is it,” Jasper said, and he knew he had to be right. As if retracing their steps back up the tunnel they had found on Christmas, they walked cautiously toward what they hoped would be a blocked passage. And there, in front of them, was the pile of rubble, Through the rocks came the thin streams of light. Then the light went out.
“Lucy!” cried Jasper. There was no response.
“It might be miles of rubble,” Noah said, rubbing his head.
“There was light coming through, you idiot!” yelled Faye. “It can’t be miles.”
“Lucy!” Jasper cried louder.
Noah put his fingers in his mouth and blew an ear-splitting whistle. Faye covered her ears and kicked his foot.
“Ouch,” he said. “We need to make noise so they can—”
But there was a noise. In fact, it sounded like an ear-splitting whistle from the other side of the rubble. Someone was there and was whistling back.
The Ravens of Solemano or The Order of the Mysterious Men in Black Page 32
