Secrets in the Dark (30 page)

I caught my breath as it
seemed to shimmer there. I looked at Olivia and Faith, wondering if
they saw it too. Olivia’s eyes sparkled and she was sitting forward
on the edge of her seat, and Faith’s lip was in danger of being
chewed off.

Then Ronny dropped her
hand, the vague impression of the symbol disappeared, and a
shockingly loud splintering sound almost made me jump out of my own
skin.

I wasn’t the only one who
gasped, loudly, when the top of the chest opened. Just a tiny
crack.

Ronny reached out, and then
hesitated, her hand suspended about an inch away. She took a deep
breath, then blew it out slowly. We all sat forward, and it felt as
if my whole body was vibrating with excitement. Ronny’s hand closed
the distance, grasped the top of the chest and pulled it open,
slowly.

A strange musty scent
wafted up from inside the chest, a smell of dust, mildew, old paper
and dying grass. Ronny reached in and pulled out a handful of
papers, rolled and tied with reeds. She opened them carefully, then
riffled through, slowly at first, then more and more
rapidly.

Then she slapped the pages
on the table and gave a frustrated growl. “These are also in code.”
Her face sagged in disappointment.

I jumped up to peer into
the chest, then sighed when I saw there was nothing else in it,
just moldy smelling papers.

“
I can make copies for
both of us,” Brady said. He continued confidently, “Don’t worry.
We’ll figure them out.”

Ronny hesitated then passed
the pages to Brady. “It looks like Ghalynn’s writing,” she said
quietly. “So the map in his cabin did lead to a clue. But a clue to
what?”

I echoed Brady’s words,
“We’ll figure it out. We’re going back next month to check out
other parts of the cave. We may find more stuff.” I pointed to the
pages in Brady’s hand. “And maybe we’ll find something to help us
figure those out.”

“
You will let me know as
soon as you have any information?” she asked Brady
anxiously.

I stood up and the others
pulled themselves to their feet. “Don’t worry, we’ll let you know
when we find anything.”

Brady said, “I’ll bring
the papers back this afternoon. It may take some time, but I
know
I can figure this
out.”

“
Wait,” Ronny said. “This
may help.” She jotted down several symbols and told him they would
be the most common, like how ‘e’ or ‘a’ is used in
English.

“
Thanks, that should help
a lot! I’ll start on it tonight, but it could take a while since
we’re back in school.”



It felt weird to think of
myself as an 8
^th
grader who’d be turning thirteen in a couple
weeks. Should it make a difference that we’d all be teenagers now?
Ray certainly wasn’t acting any older. He’d spilled grape juice
down the front of Faith’s favorite white shirt just that afternoon.
She’d cried, but not where he could see it.

A few times, Ray and Andrew
provoked Doug into yelling at them, and Doug had to stay after
school. As usual, they were able to convince everyone that they
were the good kids, and Doug was the problem. Once, Ray and Andrew
got Doug sent to the principal’s office. That time, Faith, Olivia
and I all crowded into the office, vowing that Doug was protecting
Faith from Andrew.

It was clear the principal
believed we were sticking up for our friend, but he had to let Doug
go with all of us crowded into his office as witnesses. He
obviously believed Ray and Andrew — he didn’t even remind them of
the school rule against inappropriate behavior.

On days when Doug had to
stay after school, all of us waited and walked home together. I was
convinced Ray and Andrew were trying to separate us. If he got one
of us alone, he could try to force us to tell him about
Chimera.

We had to make sure that
never happened!

Chapter 33

So, Who’s Stupid
Now?

The last Saturday in
October, Brady was distracted as we hurried through the cemetery. I
was just grateful we hadn’t seen the Rejects as we made our way
quickly through the tree. This time, it was my turn to step out of
the tree without ending up in the dirt.

I’m getting better at
this!

I felt a rush of energy.
Like I was suddenly stronger and faster and smarter. I remembered
Brady insisting everything could be important and we should mention
it, so I said, “It seems to be my turn to feel great in
here.”

It was way too early for
Olivia, who merely grumbled. Brady said, “There must be a
correlation. I’ll figure it out.”

I managed not to roll my
eyes, although that felt like it took superhuman strength. “Yeah,
you do that.”

As we started down the
road, our familiars hurried to meet us with a chorus of barks,
meows, hoots and squeaks. I scooped Shadow up in my arms, rubbing
my chin against her soft fur.

“
I can’t believe the
Rejects still don’t know about familiars. They don’t know what
they’re missing.”

Shadow purred and rubbed
her head against my arm, as
if in
approval. Then she jumped down to the road and walked ahead to join
Rusty.

I told Shadow, “We need to
get to the caves before the Rejects.” She meowed once, and then all
the animals hurried on ahead. Actually, Ray and the others were
only part of the reason I wanted to hurry. I didn’t want to waste
any time getting to the cave. Who knew what else we would
find.

Most of the way there,
Brady kept chattering on and on about the project he’d decided to
use for the science fair, about cryptanalysis.

“
Cryptiwhatsis?” Olivia
asked, her lip curled in confusion.

Brady seemed surprised by
her question. “Cryptanalysis? Um, code breaking.” He practically
burst with excitement as he began to explain, “The creation and
breaking of codes has an amazing history. I’ll describe the
different types of codes and how they’re broken. It’s going to be a
great project. This year I could take first place!”

I hadn’t known there was a
state competition for science geeks. I hoped for his sake he could
win. Clearly, it meant as much to Brady as soccer did to
Faith.

Then he started describing
his project in detail.

Will he be offended if I
yawn? ‘Cause much more of this and we’ll find out.

Actually, it might have
been sort of interesting, but he used so many technical
descriptions I could feel my eyes glazing over.

Then he started in on the
future, and what computers would allow him to do. He was
practically bouncing with each step, gesturing widely and speaking
so fast none of us could have gotten a word in if we
tried.

“
I’ve researched a lot of
information on the internet and at the library. It’ll help me
decipher the information from the cave and the chest. I’m going to
build a computer program that could help.”

Olivia rolled her eyes, but
she sounded encouraging as she said, “That would be
cool.”

He smiled shyly and a blush
crept up his neck. He fell completely silent.

Note to self — You want to
stop Brady talking so much? Just give him a compliment.

The silence was becoming
uncomfortable. I asked Brady to let me see the map. I looked it
over carefully for a sign of Ray or the others.

Doug said, “I overheard Ray
talking to Andrew at the mini-mart this week. Ray was upset ‘cause
they haven’t figured out what we’re up to. He’s determined to get
us alone in here. Where no one will interrupt.”

Faith shivered and hunched
her shoulders. “I’m scared about what they might do.”

Doug gave her a
don’t-you-worry-your-little-head-about-it smile. Faith didn’t look
mad, but my teeth ground together. “If we stick together, they
won’t be able to get us.”

Faith nodded, but I noticed
she didn’t look convinced.

“
Look,” Doug said
impatiently. “We won’t let them get close enough for a fight. We
have the map. We’ll just stay away from them.”

I handed the map back to
Brady and said, “Well, they aren’t in here yet. If we hurry, we
might get to the cave before they even come in.”

Brady grinned. “I’ve been
thinking. The map only shows the entrance to the cave. I’m going to
draw the cave’s interior on the map. Maybe we’ll be able to see the
Rejects if they follow us into the cave.”

“
I’d just like to know
where they are now,” Faith whispered. “I don’t want to bump into
them inside the cave!”

I watched as Brady checked
the map again and shook his head. “They haven’t entered yet,” he
told her.

So, we’re the only ones in
here. At least for now.

Then I shuddered. Of course
there was something other than us in here. Something had been
howling at us just a few months ago.

Why are some magic
creatures still here? Why didn’t they disappear when everyone else
did?

As we passed Ghalynn’s
cabin, it was clear it was still deserted. At that moment I was
sure we wouldn’t find anyone in Chimera. The best we’d do was find
what had happened.

I decided to promise Ronny
I’d keep coming until I did.

When we started the climb
to the cave, I was still feeling great. I’d always felt tired when
we got this far, but not today. It was like I couldn’t get
tired.

I looked around to check on
the others.

Faith and Doug were a short
way ahead. I could hear brief snatches of their
conversation.

Oh goody — heavy on the
sarcasm — they’re talking sports
.

Brady trailed a short
distance behind, a strange pinkish leaf clutched in his hand. I
watched as pink goo dripped from it. He’d pulled a book on plants
out of his backpack and was comparing the leave to several of the
drawings in the book.

Good luck finding magic
plants in
Plants of the Southern
California Coast
!

Olivia was behind me. She
had Pyg on her shoulder and was gently petting his
feathers.

Everyone looked happy, even
though we couldn’t listen to music, play video games, or watch
television. If Ronny decided to give up, maybe I’d convince the
others to keep coming with me. I wondered if any of them would
agree.

As
we started up the narrow switchbacks to the cave, I tripped
on a rock and decided I should be putting all my extra attention on
my feet, not on a future that might never happen. By the time we
finished the strenuous climb to the cave, the others were all
breathless, but I still felt great.

Olivia rested her hands on
her knees and hung her head down as she tried to get her breath
back. She complained, “Doug and Faith are both big sports nuts. And
you two must be closet nuts, because none of you are out of breath
like me,” She turned to Brady. “What’s up with that?”

Why wasn’t I out of breath
as usual? Then I laughed as I reminded her, “You spend your time at
the beach lying out to tan. I swim while I’m there.”

I pretended not to notice
when Olivia placed her deeply tanned arm next to mine. The contrast
with my lightly tanned, freckled skin was pretty
pathetic.

“
I haven’t turned into a
sports nut, but I’ve been lifting my dad’s free weights,” Brady
said. “I want to be ready for rock climbing and digging for
treasure and the other crazy stuff we do in here.”

He lifted the map to check
it again, and then stopped. “Darn! Let’s hurry, the others just
came in.”

Faith stopped. “Aren’t any
of you worried about getting trapped inside that cave by the
Rejects? There’s no back door. No way to get away from
them.”

That thought made me
shiver.

“
We haven’t finished
checking out the cave. We don’t know if there’s another exit,” Doug
said. Let’s get there and check out that upper tunnel.”

As we entered the cave, I
said, “At least we’ve got familiars that can see in the dark.
They’ll help if we get lost.”

Olivia grinned. “Maybe the
Rejects’ll get lost. They won’t let their familiars help.” She
turned to Brady, “Did you remember to bring climbing
rope?”

“
Yeah, it’s in my
backpack.”

“
Where’s
your
backpack, Doug?”
Olivia was staring at his back, which was clearly missing a
pack.

“
We’re climbing today.
Climbing with a backpack would be a pain. I’m surprised you didn’t
think of that.”

“
Some of us had to carry
things with us.”

“
Since you brought yours,
Kat, would you carry my slingshot? I’m afraid it’s gonna fall out
of my pocket.”

“
So, you can’t be bothered
carrying a backpack, but you’re happy to use ours?” Olivia sounded
really annoyed!

I wasn’t too happy myself,
but a war over carrying a slingshot in my backpack seemed silly. I
shrugged out of my pack and stuck out my hand. When Doug thrust it
at me, I shoved it out of sight. As I slung the pack back on, I
turned to Brady. “So, you think we’ll be able to climb into that
cave?”