Page 32 of Monster's Mystery

Aiden nodded again.

“Well, we have a link for most of the disappearances. What would someone want with so many fire monsters?” I frowned in concentration. Then a horrible thought occurred to me. “What if they go after you?”

Aiden patted my hand. “Don’t worry. Nothing is going to happen to me.”

I tried to take courage from his reassurance, but it was hard. Many of those missing were just as strong as he was.

How could he be so certain?

“Well,” Professor Akhtar said with a frown. “I guess we should get started! We’ll only be gone for a couple of hours, so be sure to use your time wisely. We’ll be staying together for the first hour, and then we’ll split up into pairs.” He pulled a large ornate key out of his pocket. “Follow me.”

He led them to a tapestry near the library that had an image of a large stone head on it. “These are the statues of Easter Island. We will look at, but will not touch them. Is that clear?” He waited until everyone had chorused their agreement before sticking the key into the mouth of the statue and turning it. When he removed the key, the tapestry flared with a brilliant light so bright that I had to close my eyes.

Blinking rapidly to clear my vision, I saw that the tapestry was now glowing white, no sign of the art visible.

“Right then, off you go,” the professor said. “Stay close, but get out of the way of the next person through. Miss Doyle? Please go first and direct the stragglers.”

I pushed through my classmates to get to the front of the crowd, Aiden following behind me. I stared at the portal for half a moment, took a deep breath, and walked through.

Drizzle hit my face, and I stopped, stunned. I was standing on grass, the sky a cloudy gray above me. I remembered that I had to keep moving, and skipped to the side just in time to avoid Aiden appearing through the portal, which was in the back of one of the Easter Island statues.

“Help me get the students out of the way?” I asked him as he stood there, blinking.

“Yeah,” he agreed, and stepped out of the way of the next student through the portal.

The next few minutes were busy as we organized everyone, sometimes getting them out of the way just in time for the next student. Professor Akhtar stepped through last, put the key in an invisible keyhole, and turned it.

“We don’t want a mundane accidentally leaning against the wrong spot and falling into the school!” he said to me, winking.

I grinned back at him. “They would be in forquitethe surprise!”

“All right, everyone gather round!” he said loudly, his voice broadcasting to the class.

Slowly, the students quieted so that everyone could listen to what the professor had to say.

“Does everyone have their spelled glasses? Good. I want you to focus on the tiny details, to see beneath the outer glamor to really understand the depth of creativity here.” He led the group to another statue than the portal. “Tell me what you see here.”

I held the opera glasses that I had spelled the night before to my eyes and looked through them at the statue. “Is this native to the island?”

“It is.”

I frowned and moved closer. “It doesn’t really look like rock, though.”

“It isn’t.” The professor seemed positively delighted by my observation.

“Something that looks like rock that is native to the island...” I mused out loud. “Volcanic?”

“Very much so.” Professor Akhtar turned to the rest of the class. “These Moai were carved from volcanic tuff over half a century ago. What else can you tell me?”

I glanced down, changing a setting on my glasses to see through the ground, wanting to see how they had stabilized the statue. “There’s a body under the ground!” I gasped.

Several students screamed.

“Like, a corpse?” Chuck exclaimed, backing away quickly.

Professor Akhtar frowned and took a look of his own. “In this particular case, no, not like a corpse. Many of these were used as tombstones, but not this one. Everyone, take a look.”

The head of the statue stood high above us, but underneath the earth was the rest of its body.

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