Secrets in the Dark (22 page)

“
Yes, Mrs. Taylor,” Faith
and Olivia chorused in a loud whisper.

“
This is the fourth time
you’ve come in here this month. You stand around the windows,
talking, disturbing the other patrons. The next time you girls come
in here, I expect you to spend at least ten minutes looking at
books.”

She must have seen the
mutinous expression on my face because she added sternly, “I mean
it.”

“
Yes, Mrs. Taylor,” Faith
and Olivia chorused again. Years of practice had made them really
good at it.

“
Um, we’ll go now, Mom,” I
said, tugging on Olivia’s arm. We escaped back onto the street. I
laughed out loud and felt a giddy sense of relief. We’d had a
double escape — we were safely out of the library and there was no
sign of Andrew.

I really hoped Faith was
wrong — that our luck wouldn’t run out any time soon. We only had
one week until we could go back to Chimera



The cold, dark space inside
the tree seemed even worse than usual. I knew I was in Chimera when
I tumbled onto the ground. As I got to my feet and dusted off, I
noticed Brady was wearing the self-winding watch again.

I pointed at his wrist.
“So, does that keep Chimera time or time at home?”

“
When we got back last
time, my watch was
four hours earlier than
the time at home. I intend to track the variation and extrapolate
the time differential between Santa Ramona and Chimera.”

At my blank look, he
sighed. “I should be able to tell what time it is at home by how
long we’ve spent in Chimera.”

“
Oh. Cool!”

He couldn’t just say that
the first time?

Olivia was the last one
through the tree. She’d been grouchy and tired all morning, but as
soon as she stumbled out of the tree, she caught her balance and
stretched. As I watched, a pleased smile broke over her face. “Wow,
I feel terrific.”

The rest of us ignored her
— we were really tired of all the grumbling we’d heard that
morning. Brady pulled the map out of his pocket, and spoke in a
clear voice. “I wish I could see where the others are.” We all held
our breath, then sighed when nothing showed up.

“
It could mean they’re not
here yet,” I said.

Olivia lifted her eyebrow.
“Yeah, Brady. I hope your magic map isn’t broken.”

I couldn’t be sure if Brady
noticed the sarcasm in Olivia’s voice. He didn’t act like it. “I’ve
been working on deciphering the information on this map. It
contains multiple substitution codes, so it’s extremely difficult.
See the top of the map, these three words?”

I craned my neck to look.
Where he pointed, I could see a number of strange symbols scribbled
on the map.

Brady continued, “They say
‘Cave of Prophecy’. I can’t wait to find out what a Cave of
Prophecy is.”

“
What about the rest of
it?” I asked.

“
I haven’t gotten there
yet,” Brady admitted. “The substitution codes change in each
section of the map. I don’t understand how they could do all this
without computers. It’s just not credible.”

“
Computers are great, but
they carried slide-ruler thingies with them to the moon, right?”
This time the sarcasm in Olivia’s voice was obvious. I saw the tips
of Brady’s ears turn red as he ducked his head, staring intently at
the map.

I said quickly, “They
wouldn’t need computers if they used magic.” As my gaze moved to
Doug, I saw he had a funny look on his face. “What are you
thinking?”

“
Brady understands their
language. It could help. I think we should have him read the signs
in here.”

“
So, what, we’re going to
spend our time looking for signs so Brady can
try
—,” I stomped on Olivia’s foot,
making her stutter, “uh, so Brady can read all of them?
Seriously?”

Doug frowned at her and
sounded like he was looking for an argument. “Yeah, that’s
right.”

“
I haven’t been paying
attention,” Faith said apologetically. “Have there been signs in
here?”

I shrugged. “I haven’t seen
many, but I’ll start looking.”

Our familiars moved out
ahead as we started walking. We hadn’t gone far when Brady stopped,
pointing to the left side of the road. I’d been looking for a large
wooden sign, but he was
pointing to a
small carving in the low rock wall.

He knelt down and traced
the symbols cut into the stone with his finger. We all gathered
around to watch. He rubbed the back of his neck and said, “This
doesn’t appear to be a coded message. I think it says ‘Mile One’.
That could be how far we are from the tree. I’ll keep checking to
see if I can confirm that hypothesis.”

Behind his back, Olivia
rolled her eyes. When I frowned, she shrugged and turned away, an
unrepentant grin on her face.

Brady found two more
markers before we got to the cabin. At the third one, he sighed.
“There’s nothing here but mile markers.” His shoulders drooped,
disappointment all over his face.

None of us saw anything
different until we were past the cabin. This time, Faith pointed at
a tree with a number of words burned into its trunk.

As we waited excitedly,
discussing what the sign might say, Olivia grew impatient. “Hurry
up, Brady. You’re taking all day!”

It took him a few more
minutes to work it out. Our familiars sat down at the side of the
road, watching him intently. I thought Olivia would explode before
he exclaimed, “I got it! The Mountain Road goes straight ahead. The
road to the left is the Beach Road.”

“
Are you kidding me?
That’s it?” Olivia snorted and shook her head. “We stood here for
ten minutes to find out the side road leads to a beach?”

“
More like five minutes,”
I muttered. Olivia could be the queen of exaggeration when she
didn’t like something.

Brady looked like a puppy
who’d been scolded for proudly killing an old slipper. Everything
about him seemed to flatten and shrink. Even his hair seemed to go
flat. If I’d been closer, I’d’ve poked Olivia.

Doug rolled his eyes and
crossed his arms over his chest, his whole body stiff with
impatience. “Let’s move.”

The next two gave more
directions. And now it wasn’t only Olivia who was tired of waiting
around. Faith was obviously impatient at the thought of waiting for
Brady to decipher another sign. “Maybe we should just keep going,”
she suggested. “None of these are any help. They’re like road signs
at home, and we already know what road to take.”

“
Let him do the next one,”
Doug said. I quickly supported that, and even though she had a sour
look on her face, Faith reluctantly agreed. Olivia’s breath huffed
out so loud, she might as well have shouted.

We’d just passed the sign
for ‘Mile Four’ when we came to a fork in the road that didn’t show
on the map.

Chapter 26

Rock and Roll…

“
Which way do we go now?”
I asked.

Considering we were in a
magic land,
it wouldn’t surprise me if a
scarecrow suddenly told me people liked to go both ways. Instead,
Doug pointed to the side of the road.

“
There’s a sign there.
Maybe it tells which way to go. You’re up, Brady!”

Olivia threw herself down
in the middle of the road. “Well,
this
will take awhile. Might
as
well be comfortable.”

Doug pretended Olivia
hadn’t spoken, and told Brady, “This one looks pretty long. Can you
do it?”

Brady took a deep breath
and squared his shoulders. He walked up to the sign, careful to
keep his feet on the road. The animals followed and sat watching
him. He leaned forward, teetering for a moment before he caught his
balance and traced several symbols with his fingers. Then he paced
back and forth at the edge of the road. Now the familiars were
lying down, watching through half shut eyes. I thought they looked
like they were falling asleep. At one point, he smacked his
forehead with the palm of his hand.

Note to self — Hitting
yourself in the head is totally stupid.

“
Oh come
on
, Brady,” Olivia
complained as Faith dropped down next to her.

“Look, it’s not easy,
figuring this out. The symbols on each sign are slightly
different.”

“Maybe we should just pick
one direction and go with it,” Olivia said impatiently, her face
scrunched into a scowl. She scooped a handful of dirt off the road
and let it trickle through her fingers.

I could tell Brady was
supposed to think she was so bored even watching dirt fall was
better than watching him figure out the sign. I knew Faith got it,
but wasn’t so sure Doug and Brady did. I also knew it meant Olivia
was only moments away from doing something more obvious to show she
was tired of waiting.

“
Eeny, meeny, miney, moe,”
Faith said, pointing first right then left as she spoke.

Brady glared at both of
them. “This is important! It says something about a warning and the
road to the left going somewhere perilous.”

I noticed our familiars
looking from one fork to the other, appearing uncertain.

Why doesn’t this show on
the map? Which way—

A shockingly loud,
drawn-out howl sounded to our left. I
really
didn’t want to see what
could
make a noise like that.

“I changed my mind. Let’s
go right,” Faith said, her eyes widening. She climbed quickly to
her feet.

“Going left is
dangerous
and
something’s howling that way? I’m
totally
going to the right.” Olivia
stood up, dusted her hands on her jeans and started walking without
waiting to see what the rest of us did.

We all began to follow
her. Brady came
last, still protesting.
“Wait. There’s more. It could be important…” He trailed off as he
realized no one was going to stop.

A muscle jumped in his
cheek and a wave of misery darkened his eyes. “What’s wrong?” I
asked.

“
It’s just like home,” he
said bitterly. “No one listens to me there, either.” There was a
short pause as
I tried to think of
something to say, then Brady’s gaze focused past me. He was glaring
at Olivia. “But somebody’s going to listen
here
!”

He quickly passed the
others, intent on Olivia. With surprise, I saw him grab her arm and
turn her toward him. I hadn’t expected that from him. Doug yes, not
Brady. Olivia shoved at his hand, yelling, “Let go of
me.”

As she pushed him away, his
watch came loose and he barely caught it before it hit the road.
“You could have broken it,” he yelled back. “How would I explain
that to Dad?”

“
Then don’t grab me!” She
was still shouting, hands on her hips, her eyes scrunched tight in
anger. “And you said your dad didn’t like it, anyway.”

Brady took a step closer to
her. “Just because he doesn’t wear it doesn’t mean he wants it
broken!”

Olivia stepped toward him.
“What’s so important about a big old watch he never
wears?”

Brady took another step.
They were now so close, their noses were practically touching. And
they were both still yelling, right into each other’s face. “He
bought it in honor of his grandfather. He disappeared a long time
ago, and no one knows what happened to him. Is that good enough for
you?”

“
Fine. I’ll be careful
with your stupid watch. Just don’t grab me!”

Without another word,
Olivia whirled around and continued down the road. Brady hesitated
only a moment before running after her.

A short way ahead, a large
rockslide covered the road. It was only a couple feet high, which
shouldn’t be hard to cross, but it was at least ten feet wide. I
hoped I could climb across it as good as the others. A curse of
being short was having short legs. I’d really hate it if I had to
ask Doug for help!

Olivia had nearly reached
the rockslide when Brady caught up to her. She’d lifted her foot to
start climbing onto the rocks when Brady shouted, “Wait! I figured
it out. Olivia, STOP!”

He raced the last feet
between them and grabbed Olivia’s arm, pulling her around to face
him again. At the same time, our animals started making loud sounds
of distress.

“
What’s the
matter
with you? Stop
it!” She smacked his arm with her fist. It looked like she hit him
pretty hard, but Brady didn’t even flinch. Olivia was shaking her
arm back and forth, trying to get away. “You’re upsetting our
animals, and you’re totally getting on my last nerve!”

Olivia sounded just like
her mom when she said that. Normally it would have made me laugh,
but I could tell Brady was scaring her. I didn’t understand why he
was holding onto her like that.

For a moment, he didn’t
answer, still out of breath from sprinting after her. Then he
managed to pant out, “The sign was a warning...left path leads to
perilous forest. Right path…
this
path…
leads to certain death. That
rockslide…I think it’s dangerous.”