Page 49 of Tomb of Ancients
“That’s allowed.” He shot a look over his shoulder, just in time for Dalton to appear, a heavy bag strapped to his back, also departing through the open kitchen door. “You can hate me later. It appears it is time for you to go.”
The souls shrieked as they regained their forms, and I had to lean closer to Henry just to divine a single word. Gunfire. Screaming. The dull thud of javelins hitting Mary’s barrier... It was all too much, and I had only just pulled myself back from the mental brink. Khent sprinted to meet us, putting himself between me and the field of battle.
“What’s going on?” he demanded.
“You’re going,” Mr. Morningside said. “Leave this bit of bother to us, you have work to do. He’s got the book, Louisa. Now it’s time for you to do as you promised. Take the dog man, he’s useless without a moon around.”
“Mother is coming, too,” I told him. “She isn’t meant for this kind of bloodshed.”
The tide seemed to be turning, with Mr. Morningside’s birds allowing our side to gain more ground. That didn’t erase my concern completely, and I hated the thought of leaving even one of my friends behind.
Mr. Morningside sighed and rolled his eyes, then gestured to Mother. “I’m only agreeing because she’s apparently useless. Now go! We’ll keep them busy while you four depart.”
“So sudden,” I murmured, feeling as if the ground had been knocked out from under me. “Where are we going?”
“Helmsley Castle. It isn’t far. Dalton has your instructions.” Mr. Morningside clasped me by the arm, and not for the first time, I wondered if this would be our final meeting. He was suddenly serious, oblivious to the violence bearing down. “And Louisa? Good luck. I know you won’t let me down.”
There was no time to say goodbye, a fact that would haunt me for the entirety of the ride.
“I just don’t know what to expect,” I told Khent and Mother, who sat across from me in the carriage. We had taken the roughshod carriage Chijioke used for errands, with Dalton in the driver’s box, a cloak wrapped around the book on his lap. “And I couldn’t say a word to Mary or Chijioke. Or, God, Lee and Poppy! How will I explain any of this to them?”
“They will understand,” Mother assured me. She had recovered quicker than I expected, sitting upright and calm, her veil draped over her face. The mourning garb seemed appropriate. “You are walking into the unknown, child. There will be time for apologies later.”
Khent, however, had climbed into the seat next to me, watching through the back window as the house disappeared in the distance. Helmsley Castle lay not far from Malton, which also struck me as fitting, going to the start to reach the end. Malton was nothing like Constantinople, and I hoped this wasn’t some kind of trick. But it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if this mysterious place—the unknown, as Mother hadcalled it—had many doors. After all, the one Mr. Morningside had found in the diary had appeared out of thin air.
“Something is wrong.” Khent pointed out the window, grumbling.
“What is it?” I asked.
“They should be following. They should sack their strategist. A chariot leaves the battle, you follow. No matter how empty it looks, you follow. Either they are very stupid or we are riding into a trap.”
“Stay alert,” I told him. “I have a bad feeling in my stomach.”
Mother watched me closely, the carriage rocking us all as Dalton spurred the horses and we flew down the road. I nestled down into the seat, exhausted, trying to recover some of my strength for the trials to come. Whatever we faced, it would require more than just following a few directions. Which reminded me...
I pulled out the small scroll Mr. Morningside had provided. Dalton had handed it off to me before we departed the house and suggested that I memorize it. There wasn’t much to it, and most of it I already knew.
“There will be riddles,” I told them. “And there must be something different about me... Morningside said he wasn’t allowed inside, but that I should be able to pass. I cannot say too much about it just now, even speaking of the ritual can summon horrid things to punish you.”
“Perou huer hubesou,”Khent muttered, his nose still up to the rear window.More deceptions.
But I shook my head at him. “No... We’re quite different, he and I.”
“That is an understatement.”
“Maybe... ,” I mused aloud, rubbing my forehead, “maybe only women can enter. Or perhaps only those with Dark Fae blood are allowed. If he tried to enter the tomb with Dalton and Ara then that wouldn’t work. Oh, I don’t know, it’s pointless to speculate.”
Mother leaned over and touched my knee, then lifted her veil and patted the seat next to her. I climbed across and settled down, then felt a warm, soothing sensation rush over me as she touched the side of her head to mine. “Read the scroll. Recover yourself.”
I did, and it was far easier with her there. Just her touch had a way of obliterating my fears, a balm for the battle we had just endured and the battle no doubt to come. My thoughts eased, and though I still felt heavyhearted from the bloodshed and from leaving behind so many of my friends, it did not feel so hopeless with her there.
Flattening the parchment across my knee, I read over the brief lines, written in Mr. Morningside’s exceedingly elegant hand. They were what I expected—the riddles he had discovered, the answers he thought to be correct, and even thewords to speak to call out the door. My eyes caught on one line in particular, and I felt a pang of sorrow deep in my chest. Now I was infinitely grateful that I had read the entirety of Dalton’s diary; without it, I would be in awful peril.
For Mr. Morningside had lied. I read over his recounting of the riddle again and again, hoping it was a simple misspelling or error. But no, there was no way he had written the wrong answer by mistake. Either he wanted me to suffer, or he wanted me to fail. Or perhaps he was simply too dim-witted to count and realize that Faraday had been missing three fingers. Three. He had gotten every single riddle wrong, which meant... which meant...
Something inside me hardened, a cluster of nerves that had been soft became steel, and I knew then that I would do what he could not: I would enter the Tomb of Ancients and behold all that he had wanted so badly to see and been denied.
“Arms to embrace, yet no hands. Pinches to give, yet no fingers. Poison to wield, yet no needle.”
