We Are Not Eaten by Yaks (29 page)

“Of course, Frank Pfeffer was nowhere to be found,” Dr. Navel took over again. “We cannot be sure what became of him.” He coughed, though everyone knew what had become of him. Unlike yaks, yetis were
not
vegetarians. “Anyway, you have never seen such joy as when we opened that cage and the mother and child yeti were reunited. Even our trusty yak seemed to shed a tear at the sight.”

All the explorers laughed. Yaks were not known to be sentimental.

“It's normal,” Celia interrupted. “We brought their family back together. Nobody likes to lose their mother.” She glared angrily at Sir Edmund.

“Yeah,” Oliver said, not noticing his sister's anger. He was really into telling their story. He felt heroic. “The baby yeti hugged us too, just as hard as his mother did. I thought he might squeeze us to death, but he didn't. He just wanted to play. His mother roared and he put us down. Then both of them jumped right out of the window and raced off into the snow because they were so happy to have escaped from Sir Edmund and his nasty Council.”

“Lies!”
Sir Edmund shouted, while some of the other explorers wearing the symbol of the scroll in chains pulled out their cell phones and started sending angry text messages. “This is nonsense. Children could not survive an attack from an abominable snowman! And this so-called
Council
is a fantasy. Something from one of their cable television shows!”

“Snow
woman
,” Celia corrected him angrily.

“We don't even have cable and you know it!” Oliver added.

“I demand justice!” Sir Edmund shouted. “We had a wager! The Navels lost it! I demand my victory! I will not suffer these lies!”

“Calm down, Edmund,” Professor Rasmali-Greenberg answered him, and turned back to the entire room. “I have decided on the second of the terms of the wager, concerning the children Oliver and Celia Navel. The wager stands.”

Many people in the room gasped.

“They shall surrender themselves into the service of Sir Edmund for the rest of the summer and return to his employment every vacation until they graduate from high school.”

“But he and his Council tried to kill us!” Oliver shouted. “More than once!”

“Nonsense!” Sir Edmund responded. “The boy has watched too many spy movies! Television rots your brain, you know.”

“Liar,” Oliver yelled, and tried to lunge at Sir Edmund. Celia grabbed his arm and held him back.

“Such a brat.” Sir Edmund laughed. “Now I understand why your mother decided to disappear.”

Celia let go of her brother and kicked Sir Edmund right in the shin.

“Ouch!” he shouted as he fell.

She grabbed Oliver and pulled him off the stage, running toward the exit.

“We're running away now?” Oliver asked.

“Yes!” Celia shouted as they burst into the hallway.

THEY RUSHED PAST THE OLD
portraits of explorers, up the narrow staircase under the old flags and banners from the club's past expeditions. They sprinted all the way up four and a half flights of stairs and burst into their apartment. Oliver grabbed the backpack from its hiding place in the tunnel and Celia took a quick look around.

“At least we know where Dad will be,” she said.

“What if Mom comes back?” Oliver wondered. Celia didn't have an answer to that. She just stood there silently. “Shouldn't we look for her?”

“No, we shouldn't,” Celia finally said. “She only found us again so we could find the Lost Library for her! And that's the last thing I want to do. I'm done with adventures for good. And I am not going to be slave to Sir Edmund or his Council. Come on.”

Oliver climbed into the tunnel ahead of his sister. He had his doubts, but he couldn't let his sister run away alone, and he didn't want to stay behind to be Sir Edmund's slave by himself. As they crawled away, they heard the door to their apartment burst open.

“Where are those brats?” Sir Edmund shouted.

“Oliver? Celia?” their father called out, worried.

Within a few minutes they had popped out of the tunnel into the library. They stood behind the big statue dedicated to Frank Pfeffer and Janice McDermott.

“Ugh,” Oliver said. “I don't want to ever see that thing again.”

“Okay,” Celia said. “So we're going to leave this room and run right for the door. Don't stop for anything. Ready?”

“Yeah, I'm ready.”

“Going somewhere?” a voice called out to them. They turned and saw Professor Rasmali-Greenberg sitting in one of the high-backed chairs facing the fireplace.

The professor stood slowly, setting down a small leather book. “I fear that the story of two children running away to seek their freedom only ends happily on television. In real life, I think you'll find that you shall meet a terrible fate on your own.”

“More terrible than becoming slaves to Sir Edmund?” Celia snapped.

“Sir Edmund will never let you escape,” the professor responded, shaking his head sadly.

“You could have done something to help us,” Celia said. “You could have changed the bet like you did for Dad.”

“I suppose I could have, Celia. But I did not.”

“Why not?” Oliver demanded.

“Well,” the professor said. He sighed and gestured for the children to sit down. Neither of them moved. “Okay, fine. Stand if you like.” He leaned on the armrest of the chair. “I have not been honest with you for quite some time. You see, I know about the Council and I know what your mother gave you in Tibet.”

“You know?” Oliver asked. “How do you know that?”

He smiled and lifted his hand. He wore a ring on his finger that had a symbol of a key on it.

“Your mother would be very proud you didn't betray her to win the bet,” he said. “And now we need you.”

“Who needs us?” Oliver asked. “What is that symbol?”

“It is the symbol of the Mnemones.”

“What?” Oliver said. “What the heck are the Knee-Moans?”

“The Mnemones were the scribes in the Great Library of Alexandria. Whenever a ship came into port, all its books would be taken and copied by the scribes. Whenever a new land was conquered or a new discovery made, the Mnemones were the first to learn about it and to study it. They recorded all of the knowledge in the world. They wrote the tablets.

“But the leaders of Alexandria didn't want anyone but themselves having all that knowledge. So they decided to destroy the Mnemones and their records. In the battles that followed, the library itself burned down. The books and treasures were feared lost. But they were not lost. They were hidden. Your mother has spent the past three years trying to find out where. The Council is searching too, and they will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. Your mother stayed away all this time to keep you safe from them. But then she heard that prophecy from the oracle. She knows that she is not the one who is destined to find the library. You two are.”

“No,” Celia said.

“I don't want to be a Knee-Moan,” Oliver said.

“We're not going to find anything. We're going to run away now, like we should have done before.”

“You can't run from your destiny.”

“We can try,” Celia said.

“A wise poet once said that one often meets one's destiny on the path one took to avoid it.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

The professor just shrugged. “If you do stay and fulfill your part of the wager, when you return from your summer job with Sir Edmund, you will have
all
the premium channels. Not just basic cable. Everything. Everything you could ever want to watch.”

“Everything?”

“Nature. Movies. Cooking. Soaps. The Travel Channel. Everything,” the professor said.

“No travel,” Oliver said. Celia just crossed her arms in front of her chest. She was angry that this had been hidden from them. The Council and the Mnemones and their mother were all part of some ancient treasure hunt, and Oliver and Celia were supposed to solve it for them? That was crazy. They just wanted to be left alone.

“You don't have to find anything,” the professor continued. “All I ask of you is that you honor your father's bet with Sir Edmund and work for him. Who knows? You might learn something useful. You might accidentally
discover
something, in which case, I would appreciate if you wrote it down and told me about it when you got back.” He smiled kindly. “Just like scribes.”

“Or spies,” Oliver said, a little excited.

“You want us to spy on Sir Edmund,” said Celia flatly.

“I do,” said the professor. “And after what he did to you, I would imagine you might want to spy on him also.”

“We just want to be left alone,” Celia said.

“Well, my young friend, I do not need to be an oracle to tell you that that is not going to happen. Your life is going to be an adventure whether you want it to or not. You have a choice, however, over what you do with that adventure. I suggest you take advantage of it. No matter what, you are going to have to endure it.”

Just then the door to the library burst open and Sir Edmund, Dr. Navel and a crowd of explorers burst in.

“There they are!” Sir Edmund shouted.

“Ah, Sir Edmund, good to see you,” the professor said. “The children are packed and ready, as you can see. I was just giving them some parting advice.” He smiled at them. “And some reading.”

He handed Celia the small leather book from his chair. She looked down at the spine. It was engraved with a symbol of a key.

A HISTORY OF THE GREAT SCRIBES OF
ALEXANDRIA,
the spine said in gold lettering.
BY CLAIRE S. NAVEL, PHD.

 

“Mom,” Celia whispered.

He handed Oliver a small leather book as well. This one didn't have a key symbol on it. Just a picture of a llama.

“A llama?” Oliver complained. “
A Guide to South American Flora and Fauna
?” he read. “By Dr. Ogden Navel, PhD. What's flora and fauna?”

“It means plants and animals,” Dr. Navel said, smiling. “I wrote that book the year you were born.”

“Why not just say plants and animals, then?”

“Because they're explorers,” Celia said. “That's why.”

“I trust you will respect the child labor laws,” the professor said to Sir Edmund, “and give Oliver and Celia some time to rest and do their summer reading. They must get ready for the sixth grade, after all.”

Sir Edmund just snorted at the professor, and then looked at Oliver and Celia.

“My plane is fueling now. We'll leave right away.” He turned and left the room with an angry wave of his arms.

Dr. Navel rushed to his children and dropped to one knee in front of them.

“I'm sorry I couldn't protect you from this,” he said, and he was crying. “I swear, when you get back, you can watch whatever you like. I won't make you come to a Ceremony of Discovery ever again.”

“Deal,” said Celia. “You owe us big-time.”

“Things will be back to normal soon,” he promised. “Work hard this summer. Sir Edmund can't hurt you right now. Not with everyone watching. And maybe when you get back, I will have found your mother.”

“Oh, Dad,” Celia said. “I don't think she wants to be found.”

He didn't answer her, just hugged her again and hugged Oliver.

“Good luck,” he said.

“You too,” said Oliver.

“Remember what I told you,” Professor Rasmali-Greenberg called out.

“Remember the premium channels,” Celia responded.

The explorers stepped out of Oliver and Celia's way as they passed, making a path to the door.

“What now?” Oliver whispered, slinging the backpack onto his back. “Do we run?”

“No,” said Celia. “What would Agent Zero do?”

“Call his stunt double,” Oliver answered as they left the Explorers Club and climbed into the big black limousine.

Sir Edmund sat directly across from them, still wearing his tuxedo from the ceremony. On his lap sat a lizard the size of a small dog. It had on a purple collar with a silver tag. The lizard was yellow and brown and studded with hard little bumps that looked like armor. It had a flat face and an expression like it just ate a raw onion. It smelled like it too.

“Celia and Oliver,” Sir Edmund said. “This is Beverly.” He reached over and plopped the lizard right onto Oliver's lap. Her claws curled and gripped onto his leg. Oliver winced but didn't want to show Sir Edmund that he was in pain.