The Curse of Deadman's Forest (7 page)

Ian squatted down next to Carl and peered into the shadows. Under the slant of the slab he could see nothing but small rocks and debris. “We’ll have to clear it out,” he said. He didn’t know how far back the cave-in went, but the exit behind them at the cavern looked far more challenging to clear.

“What about that fork we passed?” Jaaved suggested while Ian and Carl looked glumly at the mess in front of them.

The boys turned to Jaaved. “Yeah,” Carl said, his face brightening. “We could try heading back that way and see if it leads to a way out!”

“Whichever way we decide, we’ll need to be sure of it,” cautioned Theo. “I don’t expect your torch to last more than an hour or so, Carl.”

Ian looked nervously at Carl’s torch, and the light did seem a bit dimmer. Then he had an idea and he pulled the sundial from his trouser pocket, grateful that it hadn’t been lost in the powerful storm. Placing it in his palm with the twelve o’clock marker pointing toward his fingers, he lowered it into the torch beam and asked, “Sundial, which way is the quickest out of here?”

Immediately, a shadow formed across the dial’s surface, pointing to the six o’clock position. “Good heavens!” Theo exclaimed when she realized what had just happened. “Ian! You’ve discovered how to work it!”

Ian smiled proudly. “Carl and I came across the answer
right before we spotted the cyclone. That’s how we knew about the secret passage leading down here, in fact. The dial works very much like a compass. You just need to ask it where something is, and a shadow will form, pointing in the direction of whatever you’re trying to find.”

“Well, let’s not spend our time talking about it here,” Jaaved warned. “We should wait to do that when we’re aboveground and use what torchlight we have left now.”

Ian nodded and waved his friends back down the tunnel. “Very well. We’ll go where it’s telling us.”

It turned out that Jaaved’s suggestion to take the fork was right after all. The sundial’s shadow changed once they reached it, indicating that they should follow the new direction, and to their immense relief, they soon discovered they were in an alternate tunnel, which led to another—much shorter—iron ladder. Ian stood at the base of it and stared up at what looked like a trapdoor. “I wonder where we are?” he mused just as Carl’s torch blinked noticeably.

“Let’s not wait to find out, Ian. My torch is nearly out.”

Ian backed away from the ladder and motioned for Theo to go first. “After you,” he said politely.

Theo eyed him in alarm. “I’ll go last,” she said, and even in the dim light, Ian thought he could see her blushing. He then realized that poor Theo was wearing a skirt, and that she might be worried about maintaining a sense of modesty.

“Of course,” he said quickly, hoping no one else noticed. “Carl, Jaaved, why don’t you two go and see if you can get that trapdoor open? Theo and I will be up in a bit.”

“All right, then,” Carl said agreeably, handing Ian the small torch, which Ian shined up the ladder so that they could see where they were going, and before long the two boys were at the top, shoving on the trapdoor. “We’ve done it!” Carl called when they’d pushed their way through.

Ian looked at Theo and smiled in reassurance. “I’ll go up slowly. If you think you might slip, grab hold of my trousers, all right?”

Theo nodded and they went up the ladder together. Soon enough they too were through the door and had climbed into a small wooden shack filled with all sorts of gardening tools. “Where are we?” Theo wondered.

Carl grinned knowingly. “We’ve come up in the gardener’s shack at the edge of the earl’s hedge maze. Jaaved’s already had a look around.” Carl motioned over his shoulder at Jaaved, who was nodding enthusiastically.

“It’s true,” the young Moroccan said. “We’re within Castle Dover’s walls, right next to the maze.”

Ian was surprised they’d found their way underground to the earl’s backyard. “I never would have imagined we’d end up all the way over here.” The earl’s castle was a full kilometer away from the keep.

Theo distracted him from puzzling out the route when she tugged on his sleeve and said, “We should get back to the keep.”

Immediately, she had his full attention, especially in light of what had happened to them that afternoon. “What is it? Is it another cyclone? Can you sense it this time?”

Theo smiled at him, as if she was amused by his alarm.
“No, it’s nothing like that. But I do believe it’s nearly time for tea, and if we’re not back home by four o’clock, the headmistresses will be worried.”

“Oh,” he said, relieved. “All right, let’s hurry, then, but remember, this tunnel and where it leads shall remain our little secret.” Carl, Jaaved, and Theo all nodded and Ian led the way out of the shack and back toward the keep, using a shortcut through the garden gate that he knew well.

When Ian and the others finally walked up Delphi Keep’s long drive a bit later, they saw a large group of children; both headmistresses; Landis, the groundskeeper; and several other men, including their two schoolmasters, on the steps of the keep. To Ian’s surprise everyone appeared terribly upset. Madam Dimbleby, in fact, looked just short of hysterical. “Oh, my children!” they heard her wail. “They’re lost! Lost forever!”

Ian, Carl, Theo, and Jaaved all stopped in their tracks to look at each other in alarm before dashing toward the group. “Perhaps they found shelter in time, Maggie,” Ian heard Madam Scargill say as she patted her cousin on the back.

But Madam Dimbleby was inconsolable. “Gone!” she wailed.
“Gone!”

Carl was the first of them to reach the large crowd, and Ian overheard him asking a girl named Angela, “Who’s gone?”

“Ach!” Angela screamed when she noticed Carl next to her. This was quickly followed by a gasp from the collection of children and adults as everyone turned with large eyes to stare at the foursome who’d just arrived within their midst.

“They’re
alive!”
someone shouted, and then everyone began talking at once.

Ian was immediately pulled into Madam Dimbleby’s tight embrace, and she sniffled into his hair.
“Where have you been?”
she demanded.

But Ian was having difficulty breathing, squished so close to the headmistress that he found he couldn’t speak. Next to him he heard Theo say, “We were at the shore, ma’am.”

Madam Dimbleby then released Ian, much to his relief. Wiping away her tears, she said, “But the cyclone!”

“We found shelter along the cliffs,” Carl said quickly. When Madam Dimbleby’s eyes studied his dust-covered clothing, he added, “We found our way to a cave where we were able to get out of the wind, but the cliffs shook so hard, I’m afraid we got a bit dusty.”

At that moment Thatcher Goodwyn, their schoolmaster, stepped forward and Ian noticed right away that the man was clutching one of Theo’s shoes. “Thank heavens,” he said, dropping to one knee to look closely at her. “I felt certain the beast had swallowed you whole!”

There was another collective gasp from Ian and his companions. “The beast?” he asked.

Thatcher looked over his shoulder at his twin brother, Perry, who nodded grimly and explained, “While we were searching for you along the beach, we came across the most astonishing thing: a bridge made of solid ice leading from the shore all the way out to sea. A most unnatural occurrence, which was why we were immediately suspicious of it.”

“Caphiera’s doing!” Theo said, her eyes opening wide.

“Yes,” Thatcher agreed. “It could only be Caphiera.”

“But I thought you said something about the beast,” Carl reminded them.

Again, Perry exchanged a meaningful look with his brother. “As we moved away from the ice bridge to continue our search for you, we saw Magus’s beast bolt out of a nearby cave with a girl’s shoe in its mouth. We were caught completely unprepared, you see. Neither of us had thought to bring our rifles, and we were forced to retreat as the beast made its way onto the ice and ran back across the channel.”

“Is the ice bridge still there?” Ian asked. He worried that the beast might come back once it realized Theo was still alive.

“The ice began to melt in earnest the moment the beast was out of sight,” Thatcher told him. “I’ve no doubt it’s long gone by now.”

Theo shivered next to Ian and he reached an arm around her shoulders. “There, there, Theo,” he said. “That nasty creature only managed to nick one of your shoes.”

“It’s not that, Ian,” she told him softly. “It’s that now we have proof that Magus, Caphiera, and Atroposa are all working together. I fear we’re in terrible danger.”

“Atroposa?” repeated Perry, and his eyes lit with understanding. He turned to look out to sea. “Oh, my,” he said. “The cyclone! Yes, that must have been the work of the sorceress of air!”

Madam Dimbleby had been wringing her hands the whole time they’d been talking, and her face visibly paled when the discussion turned to Magus, Caphiera, and Atroposa. “We’ll have to alert the earl immediately!”

“Leave it to me,” Thatcher volunteered, getting to his feet and motioning for his brother to follow him.

“We should also inform Professor Nutley,” Perry suggested as the two began to walk quickly down the drive.

Thatcher called over his shoulder to the headmistresses, “We’ll be back this evening. Please ensure the children remain inside the keep until our return.”

Madam Dimbleby nodded dully, and Madam Scargill waved her hands at the large crowd still hovering about the front steps. “You heard your schoolmasters,” she said to all the children. “Let us move along inside and see to supper.”

The dishes from their evening meal had just been cleared when the sound of a motorcar crunching along the gravel reached Ian’s ears. He hurried to the door and pulled it open to find the professor, his schoolmasters, and the earl approaching the front steps.

“Good evening, Ian,” said the earl kindly.

“My lord,” Ian replied, feeling a wave of warmth for the man who was his patriarch.

“I’m very glad to see you safe,” said the earl as he stopped in front of Ian and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Thank you, my lord.” Ian then greeted Professor Nutley, Thatcher, and Perry while the earl said his hellos to the headmistresses and the other children.

Once the greetings and salutations had been seen to, the earl called all the adults and Ian, Theo, Carl, and Jaaved to a closed meeting in the headmistresses’ private study. “Best
not to worry the other children with our discussion,” Ian heard the earl say to Madam Dimbleby.

When everyone was comfortably seated in the study, the earl began. “I have spoken at length with Masters Goodwyn about today’s events, and while I am very glad to see the four of you safe, I am most troubled by the power of the forces against us. Professor Nutley has suggested to me that he would like to offer a plan to help keep you out of harm’s way, so I shall turn this discussion over to him.”

The professor nodded formally to the earl and cleared his throat. “I consulted with a few of my scientist friends this afternoon when word reached me of the waterspout off the coast, and they confirm our suspicions—barometric readings and the mild weather conditions over the channel could not possibly have supported a waterspout of the size and strength as struck the cliffs earlier today. Therefore, with the other evidence noted by Thatcher and Perry of the ice bridge running straight from Calais and the appearance of the beast, we must conclude that at least three of the four offspring of Demogorgon have now combined forces and are working against us.”

The professor seemed to pause for dramatic effect, but Ian was aware that everyone in the room had already concluded as much, so the poor old man was left looking slightly disappointed by the lack of reaction from the faces staring intently at him. He cleared his throat again and continued. “Dover is not safe,” he announced. “As long as Magus, Caphiera, and now Atroposa know that Theo resides at the keep, I fear
another attack is imminent, and I’m quite convinced that that will put all the children here in grave danger.”

Madam Dimbleby’s hand moved to cover her heart, and Madam Scargill frowned more deeply than usual. “What are we to do, Professor?” Theo asked meekly.

“Why, my dear girl,” the professor said with a twinkle in his eye, “we must go to Spain!”

The room fell into a stunned silence. Ian was the first to break it when he repeated, “Spain? Why would we go there, Professor?”

In response the professor reached into his blazer pocket and extracted a folded piece of paper. “I have in my possession a letter from Señora Latisha Castillo,” he said. Ian’s brow furrowed. He was quite certain he’d never heard the name. “Latisha,” the professor explained, “is the younger sister and only surviving heir of my former colleague Sir Donovan Barnaby.”

“Sir Barnaby?” Thatcher said. “Wasn’t that the archeologist chap who was with you in Greece and unearthed some of Laodamia’s scrolls?”

“It was indeed, Master Goodwyn,” replied the professor. “And as you also know, Barnaby was killed some years ago while on a return trip to Greece when the tent he was sleeping in caught fire, poor fellow.”

“And you’ve recently been in touch with his sister?” Ian asked, anxious for the professor to tell them why he wanted them to go to Spain.

The professor seemed to remember the letter in his hand
and got back to it. “Barnaby used to talk very affectionately of his sister years ago when we shared stories around the campfire in Greece. And I’d quite forgotten about Latisha until last year, when I came across some of my old friend’s notes.

“It took several months to locate her—she’s moved to Spain and married a banker, you see—but eventually, I tracked her to Madrid and began correspondence. And it was all rather ordinary until this letter arrived and Latisha mentioned that she had kept many of Barnaby’s diaries. In fact, she even has the one recovered from the fire, which he wrote in the very night he died.” The professor then stared meaningfully around the group. But Ian had no clue why the old man considered that significant, and he could tell that no one else in the room did either. He was about to ask when Carl beat him to it.

“Pardon me, sir,” said Carl timidly. “But I don’t understand what that’s got to do with anything going on here.”