The Ravens of Solemano or The Order of the Mysterious Men in Black

by Eden Unger Bowditch

  Suddenly, another boom!

  “We have to get out of here.” Jasper reached for his sister.

  Wallace quickly grabbed a handful of metallic pellets from a box and put them in his coat pocket.

  “Let’s move.” Miss Brett led the children out of the room.

  They closed the door to the laboratory

  “We have to try another door,” said Faye, already heading back toward the big room and checking other doors as she ran. They wouldn’t budge.

  Noah went back to the door at the end of the passageway

  “That’s the one we just left, idiot!” cried Faye.

  But Noah had already pulled it open.

  It was a staircase again.

  “The stairs came back!” cried Lucy.

  “That’s not possible,” said Noah, his hand still on the doorknob.

  Faye pushed past him. “And once again, I say, what is?”

  Up the stairs they ran, Noah leading the way through the dark, Miss Brett coming last, closing the door behind her. Faye shifted the carpetbag with the snowball machine on her shoulders, and Wallace came up behind them. Lucy stopped partway up, anxious and scared.

  “It’s too dark,” she whimpered.

  Miss Brett shook her electric torch and flicked on the switch. Light filled the path, and they could dimly see the long stairway twist to a landing ahead.

  And suddenly, with a pop, the light went out.

  “Oops,” Noah said.

  “We can’t use more than one torch at a time,” Jasper said, forging ahead. “Faye’s is starting to flicker again. That makes only two and a half left. We’ll use the torches only when we really need them.”

  They had gotten a good look, so heading up, they at least knew there were stairs in front of them. Then, suddenly, there was a landing, where they all stumbled into one another.

  “I’m going to open the light on my torch,” Jasper said. “I’ll shine it around so we can see where we are and where to go. Then I’ll turn it off to save the bulb.”

  He turned it on. They could see other stairs leading down from the landing—stairs to another passageway. They could see how several stairways led up to this same landing. Shining the torch up and around, Jasper found the stairway up.

  Jasper pointed. “We have to keep going up. We started a long way down.” The stairway beyond the landing was very long and seemed to have no end. That’s where they went. Despite the darkness, Jasper turned off the light once they were all on the stairs.

  They ran up as fast as they could, but the stairs kept going. They turned once, and Jasper flicked on the light to be sure everyone caught the steps. They ran, then ran slower, then, finally, walked. Jasper flicked the switch on his torch to see if he could see an exit.

  Pop. His bulb went out.

  No one said a word.

  They kept going.

  “Will the stairs ever end, Miss Brett?” asked Lucy. “I counted two hundred steps last time. Do you think there will be more now?”

  Strange as it seemed, Miss Brett had to wonder the same,

  At last, they could see a thin light from above,

  “I can see my feet!” Lucy cried with pleasure.

  As they got closer, they could see that the light came from beneath the door at the next landing. But it was a very small landing and they had to press together to fit.

  “It’s locked,” Jasper said.

  “Wallace, try the sphere,” Noah said, standing right behind Jasper.

  Jasper helped Wallace, and they felt along the door. But there was no lock, no astragal, no groove along the edge—nothing. “Where? How?” he asked.

  “Let it free, Wallace!” called Lucy from behind Jasper. “Let it go under the door and find the lock on the other side.”

  Of course, thought Wallace, as he removed the magnetic sphere and laid it gently on the floor.

  It rolled across the doorjamb and bumped against the bottom of the door.

  “It’s too big to fit under.” Wallace’s voice cracked. “It’s not going to—”

  Miss Brett flicked on her torch and looked around the doorway Wallace fumbled in his pocket. “Maybe my coin—”

  Suddenly, the door opened. But it was not Wallace’s coin that had opened it.

  “Lock this door,” Bo Peep said to Miss Brett. She looked around and saw that, somehow, they were back on the second floor of the manor house. Robin Hood stood on the other side of the door. Bo Peep did not ask how they came to be there, though he had asked them to stay in the castle. But they were shocked to see him standing there.

  “How?” she asked.

  “You have key,” he said.

  Miss Brett shook her head. “No, we left it in the—”

  “Iron key,” said Robin Hood.

  Miss Brett remembered the big iron key that hung in her room. Very well, she thought. She ran to get the key—the iron key hanging in her room.

  Robin Hood turned and shouted something. Seven mysterious men in black came running down the hall. A man in a tall, pointed hat led the way, followed by a man in a black fez, the feather man, the man in the big beret, a man who looked suspiciously like a large black carrot, a man in a tall black wig, and, bringing up the rear, Bo Peep. Without so much as a greeting, tall wig, fez, and beret ran down the stairs from which the children and Miss Brett had just come. Pointy hat, feather man, and big black carrot ran down the front stairs and, from the sound of the door below, into the garden.

  “You are hurt?” Bo Peep asked. “Not hurt?” Miss Brett was sure she heard kindness in his gruff words.

  “Not hurt, thank you. We are not hurt.” She put a hand on his arm. “But what are we to do now?”

  “Must go.” Bo Peep nodded to Robin Hood, who picked up his skirt and led the way down the hall.

  It was then that they felt the earth shake. This time, they could see the light and smoke from the explosion through the window at the other end of the hall. It came from the far side of the garden. Was it in the orchard? Or in the beast garden? There was no way to tell from where they were.

  “What is happening?!” Miss Brett cried.

  “We’re under attack!” said Wallace.

  “Komar Romak come,” Bo Peep said with a growl. “Must go down. Now!”

  “Down?!” said Miss Brett. “There’s someone trying to break into the castle! We can’t go down!”

  Suddenly the room shook. They almost fell off the landing.

  “Take stairs now,” Bo Peep demanded. “There are. Wall. But not. No wall.”

  “What?!” Faye shouted, but there wasn’t time.

  “I don’t want to go down!” cried Lucy, clinging to Miss Brett and reaching for her brother at the same time.

  “We don’t have a choice.” Faye tried to sound strong, but her teeth were chattering.

  “Sweet angel . . .” Miss Brett said to Lucy, but hoping to soothe them all with her voice. “We are all together, and we will do what we need to do to stay out of harm’s way.”

  “Wait!” shouted Wallace, running toward his room. Bo Peep tried to grab him, but Wallace managed to slip around Bo Peep’s skirt.

  “Wallace!” cried Miss Brett.

  Within seconds he was back, running toward the others. “I’ve got them,” he panted, opening his fist. He held a handful of small light bulbs. There was one for each torch.

  Miss Brett smiled. “Good thinking, Wallace.”

  “Now!” bellowed Bo Peep.

  “Hey, just one second.” Noah tried to keep from stepping on his own feet.

  “No!” Bo Peep said, pushing them into the dark passage.

  Miss Brett led the children back through the door. She held an electric torch in front and looked at what lay ahead down the long, long flight of stairs. Then the door closed with a slam. The torch light popped and went out.

  “Please, let me change the bulbs,” Wallace said anxiously.

  “Yes, heading down with no light sounds like a dangerous proposition,” said Noah,
leaning over and bumping into Faye. She pushed back.

  “Rather snug, isn’t it?” said Noah, righting, then over-righting himself and tipping again.

  “Don’t push me!” said Faye as Noah bumped into her for the third time.

  “I’m sorry. I can’t see.”

  Jasper whispered to Wallace, “Faye has her torch. We can change the other bulbs by the light of hers.”

  Faye flicked her torch. No light came.

  “There’s no room here, anyway.” Wallace couldn’t even move his elbows.

  “I’ll move down the stairs to make room,” said Jasper, handing his torch to Wallace. “I’ll meet you at the bigger landing.”

  “I’ll come with you,” said Faye, handing Miss Brett her spent light. “Take Jasper’s torch so Wallace can use its light to change the others.” She started down the stairs after Jasper.

  Going down in the dark was much more dangerous than going up in the dark. Falling up steps was nothing compared to falling down them. And as soon as Jasper and Faye took the first turn from the manor door, the darkness overwhelmed them. Jasper felt Faye’s fingers digging into his shoulders. Her breaths became short and fast. He knew she was feeling the darkness closing in on her.

  “Let’s take it slow,” said Jasper, gently. “This place might be dark, but right here, the walls are wide, aren’t they? It makes me think of being out in a wide open space at night. A big wide black sky can sometimes feel close.”

  He could feel her fingers loosen somewhat and her breathing become steadier. After a few seconds, she took a deep breath. “Thank you, Jasper. That helps.”

  When they got to the landing, Faye insisted that they stay close to the wall. “We cannot see where the railings are,” she said. Jasper didn’t mind.

  As they waited, they heard banging noises.

  “Is that coming from ahead or behind?” asked Faye.

  But Jasper did not know. Could it be the others coming down? Or something they did not want to think about? Either way, they had to wait.

  And then there was light. Coming down the long stairs, they could see a bright torch guiding the others down.

  “They’re coming,” said Faye, relieved.

  “Wallace is a genius,” said Noah. “Oh yes, that’s right, we already knew that.”

  Gazing down the long stairs, they could see what they could not see going up—that there were several stairways, crossing and interlocking. It was like an underground maze. It must have been two hundred feet from the stairs to the house to the depths of the tunnels. The walls were all stone, except where the stairs veered into the middle, which had wooden railings on both sides.

  For Jasper, this was dizzying. He leaned back and saw Wallace standing with his eyes shut tight. Jasper took Wallace’s hand. “It might be easier if we walk together,” Jasper said quietly, and Wallace looked grateful.

  But when he turned to go down the next flight, Jasper found that, from this landing, there were no stairs. He shined the torch in front of him. There were no stairs anywhere.

  “That’s impossible,” Noah said. “We came up these stairs.”

  Jasper felt along the walls. Stone everywhere. Then Faye saw a glimpse of it.

  “Wait!” she called, taking the torch from Jasper, “Look.”

  There, carved in the stone wall, was the symbol of Wallace’s coin. But this was not the same one they’d first found in the tunnel.

  “Why here?” asked Noah, “What is it here for?”

  Wallace went over and placed the coin in the wall. It fit, like it did in the tunnel carvings. But nothing happened. Wallace tried to pry the coin out. It was stuck. He turned it slightly, and then it came out in his hand.

  The floor began to shiver and the walls began to shake—or at least that wall began to shake. As if from nowhere, a door opened in the stone.

  “The stairs!” Lucy said, pointing into the darkness.

  But when he shined the torch down there, he couldn’t see stairs. Instead, it looked like a chute.

  Without warning, the door in the wall slid shut.

  “Jasper, we missed it!” cried Lucy.

  Wallace quickly put his coin back into the slot. He turned it and, again, they felt the floor shiver and saw the wall open up.

  This time, however, when they shined the light down the opening, there were stairs.

  “That’s impossible,” said Noah

  “Stop saying that,” said Faye.

  “Should we take these stairs?” asked Wallace.

  Jasper leaned over. Something burned the inside of his nose.

  “No,” he said pulling back. “I smell smoke.”

  “Is it coming from down there?” Faye came over just as the door closed.

  Jasper looked at her. “I’m not sure. I can still smell it.”

  Wallace quickly put his coin back in the slot.

  “Is this whole crazy castle built on a rotating device?” Noah asked as the floor shook again.

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if it was,” said Jasper as the door opened again.

  From above, they could hear what might very well have been gunfire.

  “We have to take this stairway,” said Jasper as the door opened again, revealing yet another passage. “Follow me.” And he went first down the stairs.

  Miss Brett was about to shout to let her lead, but Lucy clung close to her, and Miss Brett knew it was too late to even try.

  Jasper shined the torch down what was a much narrower passageway. The stairs were steep and uneven.

  “I can feel air coming up, can’t you?” he said to Faye, who was breathing heavily.

  It was a long while—perhaps several minutes—before they reached another small landing.

  Miss Brett looked around. “How do we know those were the other stairs that the gentleman mentioned?”

  “Gentleman?” Noah laughed. “I’ll have to remember that you consider men wearing bonnets and bloomers gentlemen.”

  “We have to hope those were the ones he meant,” said Jasper.

  “You don’t think we missed them?” Wallace squeaked, still clinging tightly to Jasper’s hand.

  “No, of course we didn’t,” Jasper said firmly, though he worried they may very well have.

  The next landing was larger. They stopped again. There were stairs. But unfortunately, the stairs did not go down. They went up.

  “Now what do we do?” Wallace adjusted his glasses.

  “There has to be a wall,” Jasper began to feel around the new stairwell. “If there are stairs, there’s a—”

  And he found it. Wallace quickly retrieved his coin and found the keyhole in the wall. He turned the coin, the walls moved, and a doorway opened where there had been only wall.

  “Follow the door!” called Lucy

  They all ran through the opening—all except Wallace.

  “Wait!” cried Wallace, fumbling with something. Jasper grabbed his hand and pulled the boy through, just as the door closed. There was a tinkling of glass.

  “What was that?” asked Noah.

  “The last light bulb,” Wallace said.

  “No worries,” said Noah. “We still have—”

  But he was cut short by the flicker of a dying bulb.

  “Stupid thing!” cried Faye, shaking her torch. The light flickered again and went out. Faye threw it in frustration. It flew over the rail and down beneath the stairs. From where it landed below them, they could see the flickering, and still functional, light.

  “Why did you do that?” asked Jasper.

  “It was useless!” said Faye. “I—I shouldn’t have. I . . . I’m sorry.”

  Jasper reached and squeezed her hand. It was too late. The torch was gone.

  Miss Brett flicked her torch. Nothing. No one said a word. They were now in total darkness. Miss Brett shoved the now useless torch back into her bag. Jasper flicked on his torch. They had only two left and no extra bulbs.

  The new passage had an arched ceiling and led to a winding stai
rwell. These stairs, carved of wood, were more elaborate than the others, and certainly as old as any they had climbed. The steps creaked slightly as they all descended. The wood was smooth, though, and Jasper thought these stairs could have been found inside a house instead of an underground cavern, except that they seemed to go on forever.

  “This is a blasted labyrinth,” groaned Faye.

  “I’m getting dizzy,” said Lucy as the stairs went round and round. “I’ve counted 225 steps.”

  Finally, they reached the stone floor. Jasper shined his torch around. They were definitely back in the tunnels. But where?

  “A chute!” cried Faye, pointing to an opening that led down from where they stood. “Is it the one from the beast garden? Or is it the one we saw at Christmas?”

  “Perhaps it’s the one we saw from the landing above,” said Wallace.

  “Or is it a totally different one?” said Noah, reasonably.

  No one could be sure.

  “Let’s take it,” said Faye.

  Jasper felt Wallace’s hand tighten.

  “Maybe we should—” Noah stopped. “I smell smoke again.”

  “It’ll be fine,” Jasper said softly to Wallace. “We can go down it together.”

  “I love slides,” said Noah, rubbing his hands together.

  “Oh, I love slides, too!” cried Lucy.

  Miss Brett bit her tongue. She had never loved slides. Never. But whatever their feelings were about sliding down the chute, they all set to it and slid.

  Jasper held Wallace and Miss Brett held Lucy, or perhaps it was Lucy who held Miss Brett. They all slid down the chute and found it was longer to the bottom than they had thought. It felt like ages, but it was only a few very long minutes.

  “Do you smell that?” Jasper asked. This was not good. As they arrived at the bottom of the chute, there was definitely a stronger smell—a chemical smell—and it made them cough.

  “What is that odor?” asked Lucy, holding her nose as she stood. “It makes my eyes sting.”

  “Something’s burning,” Miss Brett said, trying to remain calm. If there was a fire in the tunnel, they were trapped.

  “Yes. Where is it coming from?” Faye said, taking Jasper’s torch and looking around. They were instead in a tunnel.

  “We’ve passed this chute lots,” said Lucy. “We’re back in the tunnel where we were.”