The Blackhope Enigma (13 page)

“Of course. We searched all morning with no luck. You say you are friends of Miss Forrest and Master Rivers?”

“I am,” said Blaise. “I go to school with Sunni.”

“And you, sir?”

“I don’t know them personally.” The corner of Angus’s mouth twitched in irritation. “My cousin, their teacher, asked me to help find them.”

“I see,” was all Hugo said.

“You must know a lot about this place, Mr. Fox-Farratt,” Blaise said. “About where to look.”

“Yes. But there is no sign of the children anywhere.”

Blaise’s hopes sank even lower. “I really hoped we’d catch up with them. Then we could find the way home together.”

“Home,” said Hugo. “To the twenty-first century? We have had four visitors from your century in only three days. How many more will follow now? I wonder.”

“None, hopefully,” said Angus.

“I presume you are here only to find the two young people?”

“Of course.” Angus smiled. “That is all that matters.”

“Where did you last see Sunni and Dean, sir?” Blaise asked Hugo.

“Here, before we retired last night.”

“And they were all right?”

“Oh, yes. Absolutely.”

“You helped them out,” Blaise said. “So why would they leave without saying good-bye?”

“I wish I knew.” Hugo’s face was forlorn. “Though we did have a bit of a disagreement at dinner. They thought I was withholding information from them.”

“Oh?” Angus sat up.

“But I explained everything. I thought they had accepted what I told them as the truth.”

Inko slipped into the room with a tray of food and a jug of the golden drink.

Angus helped himself to a handful of olives before the tray had touched the table. “What exactly did you tell them?”

Hugo frowned. “We came upon a certain place while walking yesterday. It is a dangerous spot, and I warned them not to go there again.”

“If you had told me not to go there, that’s precisely where I would have gone, just to satisfy my curiosity,” said Angus.

“They would dare to go there alone, even after I had warned them?” Hugo was indignant.

“I reckon they would.” Angus gobbled up several slices of pink meat and drained his cup.

“They would never have found it again in the dark,” said Hugo.

Inko’s hand shook as he refilled Angus’s cup.

“Someone must have helped them.” Angus looked intently at the boy, who spilled nectar on the table and sopped it up with his sleeve before scurrying to stand by the door.

“Did you see Sunni and Dean last night, Inko?” Blaise asked, to which the servant boy lowered his eyes and shook his head.

Hugo cleared his throat. “Sadly Inko cannot speak —”

“That’s too bad,” interrupted Angus. “Well, we have a bit of daylight left. I suggest you take us to this place, Fox-Farratt.”

“That is most ill-advised! I will not, sir.”

“Oh, I think you will.”

“Sunni and Dean might be in danger,” said Blaise.

“I have already looked there myself, to no avail,” insisted Hugo. “I say again, it is a place best avoided.”

“Is that true, or do you just want to keep us away from something?” Angus stood up.

“Not at all!”

Angus shrugged and walked nonchalantly toward the door. Suddenly he stepped behind Inko and grasped him firmly by the shoulders.

The color left Hugo’s face. “Good heavens, sir! Whatever are you doing?”

Blaise jumped up, outraged. “Angus! Let him go!”

“Calm down. No one is going to get hurt,” said Angus. “If you won’t take us to this forbidden place, Inko will.”

Angus glanced toward Blaise as if trying to transmit some reassuring signal, but Blaise could only see his supposed rescuer strong-arming a boy.

“If I have no other choice,” said Hugo icily, “I will show you. But if the children are not there, we must leave immediately.”

“Fair enough. Go ahead of us, Hugo. Blaise, you go with him,” ordered Angus, with a firm hand on Inko’s shoulder.

Rigid with anger, Hugo led them out into the groves and paths behind the palace. Blaise hurried alongside him. “I’m sorry,” he said under his breath.

“You should choose your companions more wisely,” answered Hugo.

“I didn’t choose him,” muttered Blaise. “I just want to find Sunni and Dean. But not like this.”

Hugo said nothing but veered onto another path as the top of the ruined arch came into view in the distance. He glanced at Angus, who was pulling Inko along some way behind them, and called, “Hurry — the light is fading! Come along, this way!”

Marin stopped drawing and dropped the charcoal and sketchbook to the ground. He raced to the opening of the cavern and mumbled a few words that made the thicket part.

Peering past the jumble of thorns toward the ground below, he clapped his hands and commanded, “Stand up and walk here!”

Dean and Sunni looked at each other and gingerly stretched their feet out one at a time. The creepers loosened and extended like elastic. The pair stood up and trudged over to Marin, trailing long vines behind them.

Marin pointed in fury at the ground below. “More trespassers.”

Below them, Hugo hastened along a path with Blaise at his side. A few paces behind them was a man in dark clothing, his hand on Inko’s shoulder. They were heading for the ruined arch.

“It’s that guy Blaise!” Dean said.

“Shhh!” hissed Sunni, hope erupting inside her. Blaise had ignored her instructions and followed them in after all! For the first time ever, she was glad to see him. And who was that man he had with him? He wouldn’t have brought just anyone. It must be someone who could help them.

“Who?” demanded Marin.

“N-no one.”

“You lied when you said you came alone,” said Marin. “You know these trespassers.”

Sunni and Dean were silent.

Marin continued, “Whoever they are, they are going to the arch with Fox-Farratt, as you did yesterday. I saw you with him.”

So you were the watcher in the woods
, Sunni thought.

Marin herded them back into the cavern and pointed Sunni toward her backpack on the ground. “Pack your satchel. Quickly!”

He swept up Mr. Bell’s book and carefully stowed it in his leather bag with the sketch of Dean and a pouch of charcoal sticks.

Sunni knelt awkwardly on the ground and repacked her bag, her hands still bound by the vines. “Where are we going?”

“You will see.” He dropped her sketchbook to the ground and she put it in her backpack, relieved.

With a dagger, Marin sliced the children free from the long vines. But then he hacked off several short pieces and draped them onto their wrists and around their ankles. The short vines curled themselves around and around into secure but loosely binding cuffs.

“Can you walk?” asked their captor.

Dean staggered a few paces and glared at Marin.

“And you?” Marin looked at Sunni’s feet. She shuffled backward and forward. “That is good enough.”

“Good enough for what?”

Marin murmured something. The brambly hillside began to come alive, its tendrils and creepers rearing like cobras and slithering into the cavern toward them. Dean hugged himself and squeezed his eyes shut in revulsion.

“You are coming with me to the arch,” said Marin. “We shall see if your fellow trespassers will barter for you.”

“Barter!” Sunni cried out as thick creepers wrapped around her middle and hoisted her off the ground.

“Bargain, trade. Your lives in exchange for full disclosure as to who sent you all here. And if they refuse,” Marin said, patting his leather satchel full of prison portraits, “I will put you all in here with the others.”

T
he four figures gathered at the arch under a fiery crimson sunset.

Blaise shuddered at the carved two-faced head of Janus. “I can’t see Sunni and Dean coming here alone unless they had a good reason. It’s really creepy.”

“Quite.” Hugo surveyed the surrounding woods. “They are not here. We must leave.”

“Why so jumpy, Fox-Farratt?” asked Angus. “There’s nothing here. Or is there? Maybe something you don’t want us to find?” He began pushing Inko toward the arch.

“Halt!” Hugo put up one hand. “That is unwise. This is no ordinary archway —”

“Very interesting. Does this arch lead somewhere you would rather we didn’t go?” Angus held Inko tighter. “It wouldn’t happen to lead to Corvo’s lost paintings, would it?”

Blaise’s jaw dropped.

“Ah, I see,” Hugo said sharply, regarding Angus with hostility. “That, I cannot say.”

Suddenly Inko made a hoarse noise and pointed away to the right at something red, caught on a bush halfway up the hillside. He was so agitated that Angus could barely restrain him.

“Dean’s hat!” exclaimed Blaise. “How did it get up there?”

Hugo scrutinized the servant boy. “That is close to
his
cave. Has he returned? Does he have the children, Inko?”

Inko’s lip quivered and Angus tightened his grasp. “Who’s
he
?”

“His name is Marin.”

“Go on.”

“He is the eldest of il Corvo’s apprentices. It is said that he and the other apprentices disappeared at the same time as il Corvo, along with all of his paintings.” Hugo paused. “Sir, could you not release Inko?”

Angus relaxed his grip but did not let go. “So, this apprentice disappeared at the same time as the Raven?”

“Yes. Then a few years after fleeing Venice, Marin came into Arcadia. How he got into Blackhope Tower and then the painting, I do not know, but he was here when I arrived, a lurking menace in the shadows. He accused me of spying and bounty-hunting, forcing me to defend myself by any means I could muster. Eventually our feud settled into a standoff and he disappeared. I hoped he was gone for good, but it seems we are not to be so lucky.” Hugo sighed. “He is clever at concealment. It was no mean feat to hide from Sir Innes, who would not have wanted him anywhere near Blackhope Tower.”

“Why not?” asked Blaise.

“It was suspected that Marin was secretly working for a rich client called Soranzo, who sought possession of il Corvo’s secrets.”

“I read about Soranzo!” said Blaise. “Corvo did some paintings Soranzo wanted, but he wouldn’t sell them to him.”

“Exactly. So il Corvo shut up his workshop and vanished. Soranzo promised a reward to anyone with information on his whereabouts. But il Corvo was never found.” Hugo looked uneasily around him. “The trees here have ears. I’ll say no more.”

“Take us to this Marin’s place,” Angus said.

“I do not know how to reach it.” Hugo folded his arms over his chest in defiance.

Angus looked down at Inko. “Why do I think that you do? Maybe it’s because you squirm every time Marin is mentioned.”

“Let the kid go, Angus!” Blaise protested. “He’s terrified.”

Angus ignored him and said to Inko, “You are going to show us the way. But first —”

He suddenly hurled himself at Hugo, hauling the servant boy with him. Angus grabbed Hugo with his free arm, shoving him toward the archway, and, with a mighty push, threw him under the arch. Hugo staggered and fell as he passed through. And then he was gone.

“What’ve you done?” Blaise shouted.

“Now we know what the danger is,” panted Angus. “He did say it was a special kind of arch.”

Blaise was incredulous. “I can’t believe you did that!”

“I didn’t like doing it. But we’re in an extreme situation here, pal. It calls for decisive action.”

“Like throwing people through arches to who knows where?” Blaise spat back.

“Listen, do you want to see your friends again? Do you want to go home? Well, making small talk with Hugo won’t do it. Someone had to go through the arch so we could see what would happen. Did you want to be the one?”

“He could have helped us,” insisted Blaise. “The guy’s been in here for over a hundred and fifty years! Now he could be dead for all you care.” He turned his back on Angus in disgust.

“He already told us everything he was going to. And it wasn’t enough. He lost your friends when they were right under his nose.”

“And he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, tell you where Corvo’s lost paintings are, so he was expendable. That’s the real reason, isn’t it?”

Angus flashed him a pitying glance. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear you say that. I don’t have to justify myself to you or anyone else. Just be grateful I’m here to help you.”

Blaise jutted his chin and said nothing, though there was plenty on his mind. Was Angus just pretending to be their rescuer? How much time did he have before Angus got rid of him, too?

“I want to know what this apprentice has to say.” Angus turned the distressed Inko to face him. “Now, take us to Marin’s place. Understand?”

Inko gazed miserably at the empty archway, as if hoping his master would reappear. Then he pointed farther down the valley and started to walk.

Blaise walked behind them, his eyes riveted on his companion’s back. He didn’t trust Angus as far as he could throw him. But for now he might still be his best hope of finding Sunni and Dean.

Angus, Blaise, and Inko strained to see Marin’s cave in the waning light.

“It’s up there?” Angus asked Inko. “How do we get through all the brambles?”