Haunted Castle on Hallows Eve (4 page)

They bolted across the room. Teddy threw open the door. The white bone was hanging in the air, right outside the door!

“AHHH!” they all screamed.

Teddy slammed the door shut. They huddled together, afraid to leave and afraid to stay. Jack's heart was beating wildly. He couldn't breathe.

“I—I thought you weren't afraid of ghosts!” he said to Teddy, gasping.

“Yes, well, I believe I just discovered that I am!” said Teddy.

“What'll we do?” said Jack.

“A rhyme—a rhyme,” said Teddy. He gave Annie his lantern. He threw out his arms and started a rhyme:

Spirits of the earth and air!

He looked at Jack and Annie. “Quick, what rhymes with
air
?”

“Bear!” said Jack.

Teddy shook his head. “I fear a bear might make things worse.”

Jack tried hard to think of a better word to rhyme with
air.

“Wait a minute!” said Annie. “I get it now! I get it!” She grinned at Jack and Teddy.

Has she lost her mind?
Jack wondered.

“Remember what old Maggie said?” asked Annie. Then she recited:

“Where is the girl
who spins wool into thread?”

Annie pointed at the spinning wheel in the corner. “There she is!” she said. “She's spinning at that wheel.”

Annie recited more:

“Where are the boys
who play chess before bed?”

Annie pointed at the chess table. “There they are!” she said. “They're probably her brothers! They're playing chess!”

She recited more:

“Where is the hound
who waits to be fed?”

Annie threw open the door to the nursery.

The bone was still hanging in the air. Jack and Teddy jumped back in fear.

“Don't be afraid!” said Annie. “It's just a dog—a hound! He's carrying a bone in his mouth. Don't you see? The girl, the boys, the hound—they're all here! They're just
invisible
!”

J
ack and Teddy were speechless. They kept staring at Annie as she got down on her knees and talked to the invisible dog.

“Hi, you,” she said in a soft voice. “Are you hungry?”

The bone dropped toward the floor. It flipped over, then rocked from side to side.

“See,” Annie said to Jack and Teddy. “Now he's rolling on his back with his bone in his mouth. Poor thing.”

“Poor thing?” said Jack.

“We have to help him,” said Annie. She stood up. “We have to help
them
, too—the girl and her brothers.”

She hurried across the room. Jack and Teddy followed. Annie stopped at the small spinning wheel.

“We can't see you,” said Annie, “but we're not afraid of you. We want to help you. Can you hear me?”

The spinning wheel stopped spinning.

“She can hear us!” Annie said to Jack and Teddy. Annie turned back to the ghost girl. “What happened to you and your brothers and your dog and everyone else in the castle? How did you all become invisible?”

Jack felt a wave of cold air whoosh past him.

“I think she's moving,” said Annie.

“Aye,” said Teddy, “to the looking glass. See?”

An invisible finger had begun to write something in the thick dust of the mirror. Four words slowly appeared:

“I can't believe it!” said Teddy. “This must be the secret castle that guards the Diamond of Destiny!”

“What's
that
?” said Jack.

“A magic diamond that belongs to Merlin,” said Teddy. “It was set in the handle of the very sword King Arthur pulled from the stone many years ago.”

“Oh, I know that story,” said Annie. “That's how Arthur became king!”

“Yes!” said Teddy. “And someday the Diamond of Destiny will give the same strength and power to the next rightful ruler of Camelot.”

“That's what Merlin must have meant when he said the future of Camelot depends on us,” said Annie.

“Indeed,” said Teddy.

“Wait, wait,” said Jack. “I'm confused. What does the Diamond of Destiny have to do with invisible kids and dogs?”

“After Arthur became king, Merlin gave the diamond to a noble family of Camelot,” said Teddy. “The name of the family was kept secret. As long as the family kept the diamond safe, they would have good fortune. But should they fail to protect it, they would fade from life.”

“Oh! So the family let the diamond get stolen,” said Annie. “And now they've all turned into ghosts!”

“Precisely,” said Teddy.

“I wonder where the diamond was kept,” said Jack.

“Good question,” said Teddy. “Certainly some special hiding place, perhaps in one of the towers.”

“Guys, look!” said Annie. She pointed to the wall near the mirror.

A long, heavy tapestry had been pulled aside to reveal a small door in the stone wall. The door was slowly swinging open.

“The ghost girl!” said Annie. “She's showing us the diamond's secret hiding place!”

The three of them hurried to the stone wall and looked inside a tiny cabinet. The walls of the cabinet were made of gold and ivory. But the cabinet was empty.

Annie looked around. “Ghost girl?” she said. “Who stole the Diamond of Destiny from its hiding place?”

Letters began to appear on the mirror again.

In the thick dust, the invisible finger wrote:

“Oh, no,” whispered Teddy. “Please, no.” Jack felt a fresh wave of fear. “Oh-no-please-no-
what
?” he said.

“Wait,” said Teddy, pointing at the mirror. The finger wrote one more word in the dust:

“Just as I feared,” said Teddy in a hushed voice. “The Raven King!”

“
S
o that's why Merlin sent for those books!” said Teddy.

“What books? Who's the Raven King?” said Jack.

“Now it all makes sense,” said Teddy.

“Who's the Raven King?” said Jack.

“But I wonder how he found the Diamond of Destiny,” said Teddy.

“Teddy, who's the Raven King?” Jack nearly shouted.

“He's a terrifying creature who comes from
the Otherworld,” said Teddy. “I read all about him in one of the books I brought Merlin from Morgan's library. As a boy, the Raven King longed to be a bird so he could fly. He stole a spell from the Wizard of Winter, but he didn't have the magic to make it work properly. So the spell only worked halfway. It made him half bird and half human.”

“Oh, man,” said Jack.

“Now he commands a huge army of ravens who treat him as their king,” said Teddy.

“Why would he steal the Diamond of Destiny?” asked Annie.

“I don't know,” said Teddy, “but we must get it back! For the sake of Camelot's future!”

“And for these ghost kids, too,” said Annie, “and the ghost dog!”

She looked around the room. “Don't worry!” she called. “We'll help all of you! We'll get the Diamond of Destiny back!”

“We will?” asked Jack. “How? We don't know
where this crazy raven man lives or anything.”

“Look! More writing,” whispered Teddy. “She heard you.”

Three more words slowly appeared in the mirror dust:

Jack felt cold air whoosh by him again. The curtain covering the window moved aside. A patch of moonlight shone on the floor.

Jack, Annie, and Teddy walked to the window and looked out. In the distance, a craggy mountain rose into the moonlit sky.

“Ah!” whispered Teddy. “So
there
dwells the Raven King! I had thought his nest was in the Otherworld.”

“It might as well be,” said Jack. “We'll never be able to get to the top of that mountain.”

“Aye,” said Teddy, “no mere mortal can climb that steep rock.”

“How will we get the diamond back?” cried Annie.

“I said
no mere mortal
,” said Teddy. “
I
am more than a mortal, remember? I'm a sorcerer.”