Tom was furious with himself. How could he have been so stupid? He had suspected that Lord Mortlake was somehow involved with the invasion of his home, yet he had let himself be persuaded to walk straight into a trap.
Now they were prisoners.
‘We have to escape,’ he said.
Sebastian ran to the window, opening the casement wide and leaning out. The wind blew his red curls back. ‘We’re too high here, we can’t climb out,’ he called over his shoulder.
‘If we had any sheets and blankets, we could have tied them together to make a rope,’ Quinn said.
‘Fergus can’t climb down a rope,’ Tom said. ‘And there’s no chance I’m leaving him behind.’
‘Hey, someone’s signalling,’ Sebastian said.
The other three rushed to the window, and looked out. From one of the tower windows, a light was being flashed. On and on it went, then suddenly, far away, another light flashed in response. Three times it flashed, and then both lights were blown out. ‘My guess is Lady Mortlake is letting her husband know he’s got to come home,’ Tom said. ‘We have to get out of here before he returns!’ He went back to the door and shook the handle again, then bent and looked through the keyhole. ‘I can’t see anything. Elanor, could you get that ring of yours to shine again?’
‘I don’t know what I did to make that happen,’ she answered, coming to stand beside him. She rubbed the ring with her finger, but nothing happened. She rubbed it again. ‘Please light up for me,’ she coaxed it.
‘Try blowing on it,’ Quinn suggested. ‘You blew on your hands to make them warm, do you remember?’
As soon as Elanor blew on the ring, it began to glow again. By its soft light, Tom was able to see that the key had been left in the keyhole. He thought for a moment, then went to his knapsack and got out the map. He unfolded it and slid it under the door.
‘What on earth are you doing?’ Sebastian said.
‘I’ll show you,’ Tom answered. He poked at the key with the tip of his dagger. The key fell out and landed with a plop on the map on the other side of the door. Tom drew the map back under the door, and the key came with it. Tom picked it up, unlocked the door, then bowed extravagantly.
‘That was quite clever,’ Sebastian admitted.
‘Why, thank you,’ Tom said. ‘Now let’s get out of here.’
They tiptoed out into the corridor, and Tom locked the door behind them and pocketed the key. ‘That’ll bamboozle them.’
‘Good idea,’ Quinn said.
‘Now, which way …’ Elanor said, looking left, then right. ‘Does anyone remember?’
The corridor stretched a long way in either direction, bare and dusty and dark. The light from Elanor’s moonstone ring only illuminated a small area.
Fergus took a few steps to the left and turned back to look at them, whining an enquiry.
‘Let’s go that way,’ Tom said.
They ran after the wolfhound, who led them through the empty, echoing castle and down flight after flight of steps. It seemed to take hours, and Tom began to fear they would never find their way out.
At last, Fergus led them to the kitchen, a vast, damp place scuttling with cockroaches. Empty flour bins lay on their side, and sacks drooped sadly, spilling dust. Fergus went up to a cupboard door at the far end, and sniffed it. Then he looked back hopefully at Tom, wagging his tail.
‘That cupboard’s padlocked,’ Quinn said. ‘Do you think …?’
‘I do,’ Sebastian said, and drew his sword. With one strong blow he smashed the chain.
For a moment, they all froze, listening intently, but there was no cry of alarm, or any sign that anyone had heard them.
‘Look!’ Tom pointed. ‘So much for there not being a crumb to eat in the castle!’
The cupboard door had swung open and revealed fat hams hanging on hooks, rows of smoked ducks and baskets filled with dried cod. The shelves were stacked with jars of preserves. Rounds of cheese in red wax sat next to long loaves of bread sprinkled with salt and rosemary, while a plate was piled high with jam tarts.
Sebastian’s eyes gleamed. ‘Let’s grab what we can and get out of here,’ he said, seizing a jam tart in either hand. ‘Serves them right for locking us up.’
‘Serves them right for giving us nothing to eat,’ Quinn said. ‘Which, by the way, is the answer to my riddle.’
Tom took down a ham, Quinn seized two loaves of bread, and Sebastian crammed one of the jam tarts into his mouth and grabbed a wheel of cheese. Elanor hesitated. ‘Oh, do you think we should?’
‘We need to eat,’ Sebastian said through a mouthful of crumbs. ‘Lady Mortlake was just downright mean. The woman locked us up! Who knows what she had planned for us.’
Quinn clasped both hands together at her heart, as they’d all seen Lady Mortlake do. ‘I do hate meanness of spirit … it’s like a dagger to my heart.’
Elanor laughed. A most unexpected dimple flashed in her cheek. Tom realised he had never seen her laugh before. ‘They did lock us up,’ she said. ‘I guess that means we are at war with them.’
‘Yes, the spoils of war,’ Sebastian cried.
Elanor stepped into the pantry. ‘Look! Everything is stamped with our insignia!’
She showed the others the wolf stamp upon the wax seal on the jars. ‘This must have been stolen from Wolfhaven merchants. Father said the boats were being attacked by bandits!’
‘Lord Mortlake’s bandits, by the looks of it,’ Sebastian said.
‘Then in that case we should take as much as we can carry,’ Elanor said, grabbing a sack and filling it.
‘Good idea,’ Tom said, throwing sacks and jars into his knapsack till it bulged. Quinn and Sebastian did the same.
‘Now let’s go!’ Elanor cried.
They hurried out of the kitchen, looking for some way out. ‘Where shall we go once we get out of here?’ Tom panted, racing along the dark corridor.
‘Listen to the storm,’ Quinn said. She could hear the ice hitting the windows. ‘We need to find shelter somewhere.’
‘We need to get away from here as fast as we can,’ said Sebastian, urgently.
‘Let’s head to the forest,’ Quinn replied. ‘We can take refuge under the trees.’
‘There’s that horse in the stable,’ Elanor said. ‘We would get along much faster if we took turns in riding it.’
Tom looked at her in admiration. ‘Good idea.’
‘Let’s go!’ Sebastian urged.