The Empress's Tomb

by Kirsten Miller

  Kiki raised an eyebrow. “No, it opened as we ran by.”

  Oona nodded. “The ghost must have let you in. But that doesn’t mean you should stay. It’s too dangerous for you guys to be here right now.”

  “Too late,” I told her, letting the ghost comment pass. “We’ve already been kidnapped. We just saw Kaspar downstairs. He let us in on your plan. Why didn’t you tell us? We could have helped.”

  “You were busy, and it was my responsibility—not yours. I had a hunch my father was up to something, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. I had to get close to him and make him believe that he’d won me over. So I took his gifts and spent his money and played his game. After a while, I convinced him. Turns out I’m a better actress than I thought, ’cause I ended up convincing you guys, too. But then again, the minute you found out I was Lester Liu’s daughter, you were all willing to believe the worst of me.”

  “Kiki wasn’t. She always trusted you. But you’re right about the rest of us. I promise it will never happen again.” It hurt to admit that I’d been such a fool, but I knew telling the truth was the only way to keep Oona’s friendship.

  “Don’t worry. I forgive you,” Oona said sadly.

  “So all this time you’ve been trying to avenge your mother’s death? If you’d just told us what your father had planned … “

  “I didn’t know. I had my suspicions after I met Siu Fah. But I didn’t know he was stealing paintings from the museum until I saw the Fu-Tsang guy the night you got caught. After we left, I told my father I’d figured it all out and said I wanted to help. It was the only way to find out where he was hiding the Taiwanese kids before something terrible happened to them. But I had to give him a secret if I wanted to make him believe I was on his side.”

  “We know.” I couldn’t help but sound disappointed. “You told him about the rats. That wasn’t very smart, Oona. What if something goes wrong? If he gets his hands on a map of the Shadow City, the whole city’s in danger.”

  Oona’s temper flared. “Do I look like an idiot? I didn’t tell him about the perfume. I gave him my old Reverse Pied Piper. If he ever gets the map, his men are going to be rat food the minute they enter the tunnels. But that’s just plan B. If I have my way, Lester Liu won’t get that far.”

  Kiki waited a moment for Oona to calm down. “I understand that you’re doing this for your mother, but do you really think she’d want you to put yourself in danger? And what about Mrs. Fei? She’d be heartbroken if something happened to you.”

  “You’re talking about the person who’s been spying on me for years?” Oona huffed.

  “She loves you, Oona. She was only listening so she could help you. She’s always taken care of you and treated you like a daughter. What about your duty to her?”

  Oona started to speak but stopped. She sat down on the side of her bed and put her head in her hands. It was as though she’d found a fatal flaw in her plans. “You’re right. I’ve been so stupid. That’s what the medium was trying to tell me, but I heard only what I wanted to hear. I ignored all that stuff about laundry detergent and someone listening. I misunderstood the whole message. But it doesn’t matter. I can’t stop now. I’ve come too far. There’s no going back.”

  “Yes, there is!” I insisted. “We can all get out tonight. We’ll find a way.”

  “Lester Liu is going to kill you,” Kiki said bluntly.

  “I’m sure he’d like to.” Oona looked up with a triumphant smirk. “But after tomorrow, he’ll be in jail.”

  “No, Oona. He’s going to kill you tomorrow,” said Kiki, and panic flickered across Oona’s face. “We had a little chat with him earlier. He said he wants you to die like the Empress. I’m pretty sure that means two things: First, he’s going to switch your body with the Empress’s. Ananka and I just found the mummy in a room down the hall. They must be getting the coffin ready for you. Second, he wants you to be buried alive just like she was. My guess is you’ll be given a drug that paralyzes you. Then he’ll let you smother to death inside the mummy’s airtight coffin while everyone at the party watches. You’ll be covered with the jade shroud, so nobody will ever know the difference. Sound like fun to you?”

  I shivered at the thought, but Oona stood firm. “I’ll just have to come up with another idea.”

  “Here’s one. Get out of here while you can and go to the police,” I said.

  “No.” Oona put her foot down. “Lester Liu could escape—just like last time. I’d have to watch my back for the next thirty years. So would the rest of you. I’ve got to find a way to end this for good.” She turned to Kiki. “Isn’t that what you’d do if you were in my shoes? Would you give Livia and Sidonia another chance to get away?”

  Kiki took a deep breath. “Maybe there is a way,” she said thoughtfully. “But you can’t do it on your own. You have to let the rest of us help.”

  “Have you both lost your minds?” I asked.

  • • •

  Minutes after Kiki and I returned to captivity, Sergei Molotov arrived to check on his prisoners. He slinked into the room like a debonair demon and flipped on the lights, temporarily blinding us all. His slicked-back hair gleamed like motor oil and drew attention away from his unhealthy complexion and needlelike nose.

  “Are you comfortable, my little princess?” Molotov thrilled at the sight of Kiki bound and tied. “I spoke with Queen Livia this afternoon. She and Mr. Volkov will be in America soon, and she is looking forward to seeing you. She said she hopes to arrive in time for the funeral of Verushka Kozlova. What is the English phrase—She will spin on her grave?”

  “Spit,” said DeeDee.

  “Yes, thank you,” said Molotov. “She will spit on the grave of Verushka Kozlova.”

  Kiki stared at the wall as if she hadn’t heard a word. The ropes around her wrists and ankles were only for show, and if it hadn’t been for our friend upstairs, Kiki would have coldcocked Molotov in no time. When she didn’t answer, Molotov drew closer. I caught a whiff of his rank aftershave.

  “You don’t speak? I have ways to make people speak. I was told not to hurt you, but maybe Mr. Liu would not mind if I damage one of your friends? Maybe this one?” He kicked me in the shin hard enough to make me yelp.

  “You’re a monster, Molotov.” Kiki’s voice was thick with anger. “You want me to speak? Then let me ask you a question. What’s going to happen when Oleg Volkov doesn’t get his paintings? What do you think he’ll do to you? I hear he can be very creative.”

  When Molotov smiled, his thin red lips stretched taut across a row of gray teeth. “What nonsense. The paintings are absolutely safe. Queen Livia will deliver them to Mr. Volkov herself. The question you should be asking is how will she deal with you? I hope her plan is as brilliant as Mr. Liu’s.”

  “You’re a slow learner, aren’t you, Molotov? You’ll never keep me locked up for long. And this time, I’m not going to let you and that wicked old witch get away.”

  “Who is going to set you free, Princess? The ghost?” Molotov rolled his eyes back and waved his long, pale arms in the air. “Woooooooo …” I might have laughed if the wail hadn’t been the same one we’d heard on the surveillance tapes. Lester Liu had known about our bugs all along.

  Molotov had started to take his performance to a whole new level when we all heard a thump outside the room. Then another. And another. They might have been the noises that old houses make. They could have been the storm outside—or a tree branch banging against a window. But they sounded like footsteps. The Taiwanese kids sat up straighter. The Irregulars trained their eyes on the door. Sergei Molotov stopped midwail and perked up his ears.

  “Maybe she will,” Kiki said with an impudent grin.

  “This old house is falling apart,” Molotov pronounced. “The spirits are not coming to save you. The Chinese girl’s mother is no more a ghost than your mother is. I am the only ghost here. I throw the food. I make the noises.”

  “Are you making those?” Luz laughed. “ �
�Cause if so, I’m really impressed.”

  The thumping grew louder and louder. Someone—or something—was coming closer.

  “Who said it was Oona’s mother?” Kiki taunted him. “Maybe Cecelia Varney’s still hanging around. She can’t be too happy about what you did to her cats.”

  Molotov pulled his gun from his waistband and waited. The thumping stopped right outside the door. As frightened as I was, I couldn’t help but enjoy Molotov’s terror.

  “You know, Molotov, a wise man once told me what ghosts really are.” The quiver in Kiki’s voice didn’t match her expression. “They’re the past returning to settle the score. In China they have hungry ghosts, but in Pokrovia we have Likho. Remember her? The one-eyed hag, the spirit of misfortune that everyone knows not to tempt. What if she’s finally come for you? After all you’ve done, didn’t you think she’d catch up with you sooner or later?”

  Molotov could no longer bear the suspense. He flung open the door and pointed his gun into darkness beyond. There was nothing there.

  “See, Princess,” he said, recovering his courage. “No ghosts. It was only the house making noises.”

  “Remind yourself of that when you’re walking back through the dark,” Kiki said with a snicker.

  • • •

  I had no idea what time it was. Somebody’s head was on my shoulder, and a few people were snoring. I sat staring into a room so dark that it didn’t make much difference whether my eyes were open or shut. I should have been making plans, but instead I was thinking of the hidden room beneath Bialystoker Synagogue when a sliver of light slid under the crack of the door. I heard a click and the door began to creak open. A thin figure in a long white nightdress floated into the room. The candle in its hand lit a pale face framed by dark hair that flowed over two thin shoulders. For a moment, I was certain it wasn’t Oona, but her ghost.

  “Molotov’s gone and everyone else is asleep,” she whispered.

  “Good.” Kiki had stayed awake, thinking. She shook Betty and prodded Luz with the toe of her shoe. “Get up,” she urged everyone as Oona untied us one by one. “Time to go to work.”

  “Where am I?” mumbled Luz.

  “You’re tied up in a homicidal smuggler’s haunted mansion,” I informed her.

  “Right. I remember now. My mom’s going to be pissed.”

  “That’s Luz Lopez for you,” Oona quipped as she removed DeeDee’s restraints. “Fearless in the face of death, but terrified of her own mother.”

  As soon as she was free, DeeDee stood up and threw her arms around Oona. The logical scientist had disappeared, and a sentimental sap had taken her place. “I’m so sorry for thinking you were a traitor. I really got carried away. I hope you can forgive me.”

  “Me, too,” Betty said, wiping both sleep and tears from her eyes.

  “Make that three of us. I can’t believe we were all so stupid,” said Luz. “Now can we rescue you and get the heck out of here?”

  Oona gave Luz’s ponytail a friendly yank. “Apologies accepted, but you can’t leave. The alarms are on. If you try to open one of the doors or windows they’ll go off, and it will be the Fu-Tsang and not the police who answer the call.”

  “Who cares?” Luz moaned. “I’m dead either way. My mom really is going to kill me.”

  “At least you’ll get to suffer in New York. I’ll be milking cows in West Virginia,” I pointed out.

  “You’re both always welcome in the park.” It was hard to tell if Kaspar was serious.

  “Okay, okay. Can we focus, please?” said Kiki Strike. “We’ll save everybody one at a time. Oona gets to be first.”

  “It’s about time.” Oona pretended to complain.

  “Don’t push it, Wong,” Kiki cracked. “I’ve got a plan, but we’re going to need some supplies. Since we’re stuck in this mansion, we’ll just have to make use of the resources at our disposal. And, Oona, if we can’t get everything we need, we’re getting out of here tonight. Understood?”

  “Understood.”

  “All right. First things first. Kaspar, untie the other kids. They must need a good stretch by now. Oona, explain to them what’s happening. DeeDee, how much Fille Fiable do we have left?”

  “There was a whole bottle in my coat pocket. I don’t think they took it.”

  “Great. We got lucky. Now for the hard part. Lester Liu wants to bury Oona alive, so he’s going to need a drug of some sort—one that will paralyze her so she won’t move around in the glass coffin. Whatever it is, we have to find it and replace it with something harmless. DeeDee, you’re coming with me to look for it. If we can’t find the drug, the whole deal’s off.”

  “It could be one of the drugs they use to paralyze people during surgery,” DeeDee said. “I say we start in the kitchen. Something like that would probably be kept refrigerated.”

  “Keep an eye out for snakes,” I warned.

  “That goes without saying,” said Kiki. “Okay, Betty, you and Kaspar need to find some dresses for us to wear to the party tomorrow. Since we can’t go home to change, we’ll have to make do with whatever Cecelia Varney has in her wardrobe—”

  “Wait, wait, wait,” Luz interrupted. “We’re going to the opening of the exhibit? Are you nuts? Lester Liu would recognize us in a second—and Ananka’s probably banned from the museum for life.”

  “Just till I’m eighteen,” I corrected her.

  “We’ll just have to be careful and hope that the Fille Fiable does the rest.”

  “But I don’t understand your plan,” said Betty. “How are we going to keep Oona from ending up inside the Empress’s coffin?”

  “We’re not,” Kiki told her.

  “But she’ll smother!” DeeDee argued.

  “Not if Luz finds a way to let air into the coffin.”

  “So we’re going to let Lester Liu think he’s won?” Luz was intrigued.

  “And we’ll be at the exhibition to witness Oona rise from the dead and send her father to jail.”

  “That’s one way to get everyone’s attention.” Oona sounded pleased with the plan. “What do you want me to do?”

  “You and Ananka are going to hide the Empress,” Kiki said.

  “What for?” Luz asked. “She’s already dead.”

  “Because it’s the right thing to do. Otherwise they’re going to get rid of her, and Ananka and I agree that she’s had it rough enough.”

  “Where are we going to hide her?” I asked.

  “I know a place,” said Oona.

  • • •

  We parted ways in the mansion’s foyer. Oona, Betty, Kaspar, and I slunk upstairs to Cecelia Varney’s bedroom, expecting the alarms to go off at any moment. The house was quiet and though all of us had removed our shoes, our footsteps sounded like thunder to my ears. At the top of the stairs, Oona passed the room with the mummy and opened the fourth door on the hall. The moonlight fell on a single twin bed covered with a ratty brown blanket. There was no other furniture in the room. The walls were bare and the floorboards naked. Nothing offered any pleasure to the eye or touch. It looked as if Cecelia Varney had lived the life of a medieval nun. Oona lit her candle and floated across the chamber.

  “There’s nothing here,” whispered Betty. “I don’t even see a closet.”

  “Maybe you’re not looking hard enough.” Oona stopped in front of a fireplace that dwarfed the massive one in her room. She tilted an andiron and pushed the back wall of the firebox until there was an opening big enough to squeeze through. “I’m the only person who knows about this.”

  “How did you find it?” I marveled.

  “The ghost showed me the first day I was in here alone,” she said. “She wanted me to see it.”

  “So you really believe there’s a ghost?” Kaspar asked.

  “Of course there’s a ghost,” Oona replied as if it should have been obvious to everyone.

  • • •

  The first thing I saw when I entered the cramped room behind the fireplace was som
eone looking back at me. A young blonde in a black lace gown stared out from a portrait on the wall with a cold, haughty expression on her beautiful face. I recognized Cecelia Varney from the photo that had accompanied her obituary, but it was hard to believe it was the same woman who had spent her last fifty-five years hiding from the rest of the world. Lining the room were racks of beautiful gowns, most in styles that had been the height of fashion in the 1940s and ’50s. A wall of shelves held black velvet boxes filled with sparkling jewels. It was as if the old hermit had imprisoned the dazzling socialite inside a secret chamber. Adding to the eeriness, every item was in pristine condition, and there wasn’t a speck of dust in the room.

  “Can you believe it?” Oona picked up a diamond necklace and let it twinkle in the candlelight. “Cecelia Varney had all this and it only made her miserable. She got to the point where she couldn’t figure out who loved her and who loved her money, so she started to think that her fortune was cursed. She figured if she could spend every last dime before she died she could keep the money from hurting someone else. Sounds crazy, but maybe she was right.”

  “How do you know all that?” I asked.

  “My father found her journals. I read as much of them as I could stand. It was some pretty depressing stuff. You know her last husband stole a million dollars from her and ran away to Venezuela? After that, who would you trust? I’d probably leave all my money to a bunch of cats, too.

  “So what do you think, Betty? Does Cecelia Varney have what we need?”

  Betty examined the dresses on one of the racks.

  “They’re a little old-fashioned, and they’re all size six. I’ll have to make a few alterations, but I think I can come up with something. It’s not going to be pretty, though.” She pulled out a shimmering beaded black dress that looked smaller than the others. “She couldn’t have been more than a teenager when she bought this. I think I know who gets to wear it tomorrow.”

  As Kaspar and Betty ransacked the clothes racks, Oona and I tiptoed to the mummy’s chamber and wrapped the body in a sheet. Carefully, without bending or bumping the Empress, we brought her back to Cecelia Varney’s bedroom. We were just outside the hidden room when muffled voices reached our ears.