Fablehaven: The Complete Series (6 page)

Seth whirled. Somebody had thrown the little stone at him, but he saw nobody. Could the old woman be stealthily following him? She probably knew the woods really well.

Another small object bounced off the back of his neck. It was not as hard or heavy as a stone. Turning, he saw another acorn whistling toward him, and he ducked. The acorns and the pebble had come at him from opposite sides of the path. What was going on?

From above came the sound of wood splitting, and a huge limb fell across the path behind him, a few leaves and twigs swishing against him as it passed. If Seth had been standing two or three yards back along the path, a branch thicker than his leg would have clubbed him on the head.

One look at the heavy limb, and Seth took off down the path at a full sprint. He seemed to hear rustling sounds coming from the shrubbery on either side of the scant trail, but did not slow down to investigate.

Something caught a firm hold on his ankle, sending him tumbling to the ground. Sprawled on his belly, a cut on one hand, dirt in his mouth, he heard something rustling through the foliage behind him, and a strange sound that was either laughter or running water. A dry branch snapped like a gunshot. Not looking back for fear of what he might see, Seth scrambled to his feet and dashed along the path.

Whatever had tripped him had not been a root or a stone. It had felt like a strong cord stretched across the trail. A tripwire. He had noticed no such trap previously on the path. But there was no way the old woman could have done it, even if she had started running the moment he passed out of her view.

Seth raced past the place where the trail forked and sprinted back the way he had come. He scanned the trail ahead for wires or other traps. His breathing became labored, but he did not slow down. The air felt hotter and more humid than it had all day. Sweat began to dampen his forehead and drip down the sides of his face.

Seth remained alert for the little pyramid of rocks that would mark where he should leave the path. When he reached a gnarled little tree with black bark and thorny leaves, he halted. He remembered the tree. He had noticed it when he intersected the path. Using the tree as a reference, he found the spot where he had built the pyramid of rocks, but the rocks were gone.

Leaves crunched behind him off to one side of the trail. Seth glanced at his compass to confirm that he was heading west and ran into the woods. He had walked this way at a leisurely pace, examining toadstools and unusual rocks as he went. Now he tore through the forest at full speed, undergrowth clawing at his legs, branches whipping against his face and chest.

Finally, panting, the energy of his panic wearing thin, he glimpsed the house up ahead through the trees. The sounds of pursuit had dwindled to nothing. As he stepped out into the yard under the sun, Seth wondered how much of what he had heard had actually been something chasing him, and how much had been invented by his flustered imagination.

* * *

The wall opposite the windows in the playroom held several rows of bookshelves. The door to the stairs was built into that wall. And one of the bulky, freestanding wardrobes was backed up against it.

Kendra held a blue book with golden letters. The title was
Journal of Secrets.
The book was held shut by three sturdy clasps, each with a keyhole. The remaining key Grandpa Sorenson had given her fit none of the keyholes, but the gold key she had found in the dollhouse armoire fit the bottom one. So one of the clasps was unlocked.

She had found the book while searching the bookshelves for a trigger to a secret passage. Using a stool, Kendra had reached even the higher shelves, but so far the search had been in vain. There was no sign of a secret door. When she noticed a locked book with an intriguing title, she had quit the search in order to test her keys.

With the bottom clasp unlocked, Kendra tried to pry up the corner of the book and get a peek. But the cover was solid and the binding firm. She needed to find the other keys.

She heard somebody stampeding up the stairs and knew it could be only one person. Hurriedly she shelved the book and pocketed the keys. She did not want her nosy brother interfering with her puzzle.

Seth charged through the door and slammed it behind him. He was flushed and breathing hard. Dirt smeared the knees of his jeans. His face was smudged with sweat and grime. “You should have come,” he sighed, flopping onto his bed.

“You’re getting the bedspread filthy.”

“It was freaky,” he said. “It was so cool.”

“What happened?”

“I found this path in the woods and met this weird old lady who lived in a shack. I think she’s a witch. A real one.”

“Whatever.”

He rolled over and looked at her. “I’m serious. You should have seen her. She was a mess.”

“So are you.”

“No, like all scabby and gross. She was biting an old rope. She tried to make me stick my hand in some box.”

“Did you?”

“No way. I took off. But she chased me or something. She threw rocks at me and knocked down this big branch. It could have killed me!”

“You must be pretty bored.”

“I’m not lying!”

“I’ll ask Grandpa Sorenson if he has homeless people living in his woods,” Kendra said.

“No! He’ll know I broke the rules.”

“Don’t you think he would want to know a witch built a shack on his property?”

“She acted like she knew him. I went pretty far. Maybe I was off his property.”

“I doubt it. I think he owns everything for a long ways.”

Seth leaned back, lacing his fingers behind his head. “You should come visit her with me. I could find my way back.”

“Are you nuts? You said she tried to kill you.”

“We should spy on her. Find out what she’s up to.”

“If there really is a weird old lady living in the woods, you should tell Grandpa so he can call the police.”

Seth sat up. “Okay. Never mind. I made it up. Feel better?”

Kendra narrowed her eyes.

“I found something else cool,” Seth said. “Have you seen the tree house?”

“No.”

“Want me to show you?”

“Is it in the yard?”

“Yes, on the edge.”

“Okay.”

Kendra followed Seth outside and across the lawn. Sure enough, in the corner of the yard opposite the barn, there was a light blue playhouse up in a thick tree. It was situated on the back side of the tree, making it hard to see from most of the yard. The paint was peeling a little, but the little house had shingles on the roof and curtains in the window. Boards had been nailed into the tree to form a ladder.

Seth went up first. The rungs led up to a trapdoor, which he pushed open. Kendra climbed up after him.

Inside, the tree house felt bigger than it looked from the ground. There was a little table with four chairs. The pieces to a jigsaw puzzle were spread out on the table. Only a couple had been fit together.

“See, not bad,” Seth said. “I started that puzzle.”

“It’s beautiful. You must be gifted.”

“I didn’t work on it long.”

“Did you even find the corners?”

“No.”

“That’s the first thing you do.” She sat down and started looking for corner pieces. Seth took a seat and helped. “You never like puzzles,” Kendra said.

“It’s more fun doing them in a tree house.”

“If you say so.”

Seth found a corner piece and set it aside. “Think Grandpa would let me move in here?”

“You’re a weirdo.”

“I’d only need a sleeping bag,” he said.

“You’d get freaked out once it was late.”

“No way.”

“The witch might come get you.”

Instead of responding, he started looking more intently for the other corner pieces. Kendra could tell the comment had gotten to him. She decided not to tease him any further. The fact that he seemed scared of the lady he had met in the woods legitimized his story a lot. Seth had never scared easily. This was the kid who had jumped off the roof under the misguided assumption that a garbage bag would work like a parachute. The kid who had put the head of a live snake in his mouth on a dare.

They found the corners and finished most of the perimeter of the puzzle by the time they heard Lena calling them for dinner.

Chapter 4

The Hidden Pond

Rain pattered endlessly against the roof. Kendra had never heard such a noisy downpour. Then again, she had never been in an attic during a rainstorm. There was something relaxing about the steady drumming, so constant that it almost became inaudible without ever decreasing in volume.

Standing at the window beside the telescope, she watched the deluge. The rain fell straight and hard. There was no wind, just layer upon layer of streaking droplets, blurring into a gray haze in the distance. The gutter below her was about to overflow.

Seth sat on a stool in the corner, painting. Lena had been creating paint-by-numbers canvases for him, sketching them with expert speed, customizing each image to his specifications. The current project was a dragon battling a knight on horseback amid a fuming wasteland. Lena had outlined the images in considerable detail, including subtleties of light and shade, so that the finished products looked quite accomplished. She had taught Seth how to mix paint and given him samples of which hue corresponded to each number. For the current painting, she had incorporated more than ninety different shades.

Kendra had rarely seen Seth demonstrate as much diligence as he did on the paintings. After a few brief lessons on how to apply the paint, including the purposes of different brushes and tools, he had already finished a large canvas of pirates sacking a town and a smaller one of a snake charmer diving away from a striking cobra. Two impressive paintings in three days. He was an addict! And he was almost done with his latest project.

Crossing to the bookshelf, Kendra ran a hand along the spines of the volumes. She had searched the room thoroughly and had yet to find the last keyhole, let alone a secret passage to the other side of the attic. Seth could be a pest, but now that he had become immersed in his painting, she was starting to miss him.

Maybe Lena would outline a painting for her. Kendra had turned down her initial offer, since it sounded childish, like coloring. But the finished products looked much less juvenile than Kendra had anticipated.

Kendra opened the door and descended the stairs. The house was dim and quiet, the rainfall more distant as she left the attic behind. She walked along the hall and down the stairs to the main floor.

The house seemed too quiet. All the lights were out despite the gloom.

“Lena?”

There was no answer.

Kendra went through the living room, the dining room, and into the kitchen. No sign of the housekeeper. Had she left?

Opening the door to the basement, Kendra peered down the steps into the darkness. The stairs were made of stone, as if leading to a dungeon. “Lena?” she called uncertainly. Surely the woman wasn’t down there without any light.

Kendra went back down the hall and slid open the door to the study. Having not yet entered this particular room, she first noticed the huge desk cluttered with books and papers. The massive head of a hairy boar with jutting tusks hung mounted on the wall. A collection of grotesque wooden masks rested on a shelf. Golfing trophies lined another. Plaques decorated the wood-paneled walls, along with a framed display of military medals and ribbons. There was a black-and-white picture of a much younger Grandpa Sorenson showing off an enormous marlin. On the desk, inside a crystal sphere with a flat bottom, was an eerie replica of a human skull no bigger than her thumb. Kendra slid the study door closed.

She tried the garage, the parlor, and the family room. Maybe Lena had run to the store.