“Wolf, I found something!”

He waved his flashlight in my direction. “Is it the mirror?”

“No, it’s an envelope with a wax seal on the back.”

He rushed to my side. I slipped my finger under a brittle edge, opened the tiny package and pulled out a fragile slip of paper.

“What is it?” Wolf asked.

I could barely make out the faded script which angled gracefully across the page. “I think it’s a child’s party game, like a treasure hunt or something and this is the first clue.”

Wolf frowned. “Well, that’s not much help, is it?”

“Wait a second. Let’s think about this. Sabine knew the children wouldn’t live to find the treasure and what a perfect way for her to hide a mirror, among a bunch of other shiny trinkets.”

Wolf peered over my shoulder. “What does it say?”

“My children, whom I hold so dear, here is your first clue to treasure near. Find the spinning doll, and you might find it all.”

I thought for a moment. “It must be a toy in the nursery.”

“No. It has to be something close—something in this room.”

“I haven’t seen anything in here that even resembles a doll.” Before I could get the next sentence out I remembered something I’d seen near the fireplace. “There’s a long metal poker with a woman on the handle, near the hearth. Could that be it?”

We raced to the fireplace. Wolf gripped the object and twisted the figurine until it came off in his hands.

“There’s a piece of paper inside!” He pulled it out and read it aloud. “Bigger than a horseshoe, and full of splinters, too, is where you will find clue number two.” He smiled and pointed to the wood box. “That’s easy.”

“Well, it was meant for children, so they couldn’t make it too hard.”

Under a layer of dust we found the next clue. I unrolled it, squinting to make out the words. “I can’t read it, but it says something about rhyming with an old man’s shoe.”

Wolf rubbed his chin. “Old man’s shoe. Shoe, who, boo hoo. I have no idea.”

“So far everything has been near the fireplace. The poker, the wood box.”

“How about fireplace flu,” Wolf said. “That rhymes with shoe, and if the general’s birthday was in the summer there wouldn’t be a fire.”

I nodded. “It’s worth a try.”

My heart jumped as Wolf stuck his head inside the dark chimney. His flashlight beam flickered against the sooty rock walls.

“I think I see something,” Wolf said. “It’s tucked into the side of a brick behind a bunch of spider webs.”

I shivered as he fought through the thick webbing. “Yuk, hope there’s nothing alive in there.”

“Got it!” Wolf said. In his palm he held a rolled up piece of paper. He pulled off a tiny piece of ribbon and unrolled the clue.

“What does it say?” I asked.

“This is your last written line, directing you to old father time.”

“It has to be a clock,” I said. “That should be easy.”

Wolf nodded. “Let’s split up again.” He hurried off to check the far side of the room, while I headed to the side with the table.

“Remember, it could be anything to do with time, even a picture or something,” he called over his shoulder.

Hunting with my flashlight, I was surprised at all the things I had missed in this room. Then slowly, a creepy feeling crawled over me. The place was more like a crypt than a ballroom. Fine portraits of people long dead peered from behind prisons of dust, their withered eyes following my every move. Pressed against a far wall, faded furniture rested, as if still waiting for the souls of weary dancers. A fancy punch bowl with delicate cups, blue with age, sat on a cherry wood table ready to provide refreshments for guests dead and buried centuries ago.

“Over here,” Wolf called, aiming his flashlight into a dark corner. We hurried to a marble statue of a Greek goddess with a bronze clock in the center. Its bold black Roman numerals glowed in the light.

“It has to open somehow,” I said. “There must be a latch.”

Wolf ran his hand across the base and then down the side. It made a loud click, and the belly of the statue swung open.

I dropped to my knees and stuck my hand inside, pulling out old coins and metal toys and prizes. Something else lay way in the back, crouched the shadows, covered in spider webs. I leaned forward, straining to reach it. My fingertips caught an edge of something metal and I pulled it free.

Wolf shined the light over the object in my hands. “What is it?”

“It looks like a jewelry box.” I ran my fingers over the dusty surface. It was made of silver, with cherubs and grapes engraved on its hinged lid.

“Open it!”

I gently pushed up on it. “It’s locked.”

“Give it here and I’ll pry it open.”

“No wait, let me try the key from the shack.” I took the key out of my pocket, inserted it into the hole and gave it a turn. The lid snapped open. Inside, a tiny ballerina danced in circles to the same ominous tune I had heard so many times before. I stared inside. Empty. My heart fell like a stone.

“You know what I think?” Wolf said. “I think Sabine meant to hide it here then changed her mind. Like she was in a huge panic and had second thoughts. I mean who’d want clues pointing out the very thing you’re trying to hide?”

I snapped my fingers. “You’re right! She would have been in a hurry and she knew they were getting ready to seal the room. It has to be here somewhere.”

Tension pinched my neck, stiffening my muscles. I drew my worry stone from my pocket. I rubbed it absent-mindedly, straining to think of where she could have possibly hidden the mirror.

I froze. “Wait a minute…”

“What?” Wolf asked.

I returned the stone to my pocket and rushed to the fireplace. “Flint—look for a piece of flint.”

“What are talking about?”

“Besides making fire, flint carries energy that is supposed to cloak objects, to help keep things hidden. It’s really just mineral quartz, but I know lots of people who swear by its magical properties. It’s been used in witchcraft forever.”

“Wow, good thing you know a lot about rocks. Just hope you’re right, otherwise we may be searching for a while.” Wolf swept his flashlight over the mantle, then into the wood box. I spotted a very thin gray stone covered in a sheet of cobwebs.

I fell to my knees, shining the flashlight beneath the stone and found an old-fashioned matchbox made of tin. Inside, wrapped in a thick pile of wool, lay a small hand mirror. I cradled the delicate glass in the hollow of my hand, letting the protective wrapping fall away. “The mirror! I found it!”

Fire burst from the hearth, sending long flickering flames like the tongue of a serpent hissing across the floor.

Eyes bored into me, I looked down, into the mirror. Sabine’s face, twisting with rage, illuminated back at me. She snarled, her gold tooth glaring, eyes blazing. She lifted a gnarled hand and sent a gust of wind that socked me in the gut, hurling me across the room. I landed in a heap beside the dining table. Gasping for breath, I struggled to stand. She knocked me down again; a sharp pain flared into my ribs. I rose to my feet, and smashed the mirror to the floor and ground the pieces with my heel.

A spine-chilling screech pierced the room. The windows burst from their frames. Shards of glass like a thousand switchblades flew in all directions, severing the fingers of moonlight creeping in.

Wind and rain converged into a screaming squall that blew through the shattered panes, sending wreckage spinning in all directions. I dropped to the floor, hugging the table leg for protection. Wolf leaned into the storm, struggling to reach me. I held out a hand, our fingertips met and then suddenly he was flung away, flying across the room, as if struck by a bolt of lightning. He landed on his back beneath one of the ruined windows.

Near my feet I spotted a shard of glass from the mirror. A dark eye peered out from it. I gripped the table for support and stomped on it until only fragments of dust remained.

The torrent died down. Only whispers of wind and rain were left behind. Moonlight, soft and gray, flooded the interior, creeping into every ancient corner, illuminating objects like an unexplored tomb.

I rushed to Wolf’s side. “Are you okay?”

Wolf rolled into a sitting position and propped himself up against the wall. “Yeah, I think so.”

I collapsed next to him, every ounce of my energy expelled. I was suddenly so exhausted I could hardly move. Wolf pulled me into his chest and I melted into the safety of his strong arms and closed my weary eyes.