These are the top 10 questions I would like answers to:
- Where are my mum and dad?
- How did Mum and Dad get separated in time and space?
- Why are bogies green?
- Why did dinosaurs become extinct?
- Is Grandpa Monty really as crazy as he seems?
- Why are girls (apart from Zoe) so annoying?
- How does my dad’s invention Morph work?
- What does alien Partek poo look like?
- How much longer until I find my parents?
- Can a person survive on a diet of ear wax bogies, the scum between toes and orange juice?
Since the letter told me that some of my questions were finally going to be answered, I hoped that would include at least two of my top 10. Top of the list are the questions about Mum and Dad, but I’d settle for answers to the question about a bogie diet if I had to.
Avalon Castle (that’s where my class was staying) is hundreds of years old. Apparently knights, lords and ladies used to live here, but now it’s just used to teach school kids about history. If you ask me, the best way to learn about history isn’t by studying books and going on school trips – it’s by going back in time and seeing things for yourself.
“Follow me, class!” Mrs Jones instructed. She led us into the castle and down a stone corridor. The corridor was lined with large paintings of people in old-fashioned clothes.
“Don’t you think this place is kind of spooky?” Zoe said, as we walked through the castle corridor. “I feel like I’m being watched. Maybe it’s haunted?”
Trust a girl to be scared!
“There’s no such thing as ghosts,” I assured her. I was used to slightly spooky buildings. Solvit Hall, where I live with Grandpa Monty, has been in my family for generations – most people think it looks like a haunted house, but it doesn’t scare me. And I’ve never seen a ghost there – yet.
Mrs Jones stopped walking when the castle corridor split off in two directions. “Since the journey took so long,” she yelled loudly, her voice echoing off the stone walls, “I think it’s best if everyone goes straight to bed tonight and we start our lessons in the morning.”
A loud groan came from us kids – no one wants their school teacher telling them when to go to bed!
“The girls’ dormitory is to the left,” Mrs Jones continued, “and the boys’ is to the right.”
“I’ll IM you,” Zoe said, as Mrs Jones ushered her and the other girls towards their dormitory.
I headed to the boys’ dormitory. It was HUGE – I reckon it must have been a banqueting hall back in the olden days. The stone walls were decorated with frayed and faded tapestries, there were large suits of medieval armour up against the walls (very cool, by the way) and wooden beams were holding the ceiling up. No large, fancy beds though – just small beds in a row against the walls. I sat down on my bed and took out my SurfM8.
As soon as the lights were off, I snuck out of the boys’ dormitory. None of the other boys even bothered to get up and go exploring – BORING!
I knew the castle would be dark. Luckily I’d packed some of my dad’s omnilumes (sticks that can turn night to day), so I put one in my pocket, in case I needed it to light the way. I met Zoe outside her dorm. She was wearing a dressing gown and slippers.
“Are you sure this is a good idea, Will?” she asked, pulling her dressing gown tightly around herself and shivering.
“Of course it is!” I said. “How many chances do we get to explore castles? None! So we need to do as much as possible. Besides, I’ve got another Adventure to go on, remember? There might be important clues here that I need to find.” Zoe nodded her head.
So off we went.
It was freezing cold. We tiptoed over the castle’s stone floors so no one could hear us. Moonlight crept through the large glass windows and lit up the winding corridors as we walked through them. The walls were lined with old pictures of knights fighting dragons, knights in chain mail, kings with fur cloaks and jewelled crowns and people fighting with swords. I could have sworn the eyes of the people in the pictures were following us. Zoe was right: being in the castle felt like someone was watching you.
The more we walked around, the more creeped out I became – but I’d never admit that to Zoe! The wind outside was rattling the castle windows and making an eerie howling sound. It sounded like voices were being carried on the wind...
I tried to snap myself out of any chicken-like fear and focus on what I had to do. I was on the lookout for another letter, or something that might give me a clue to my next Adventure.
The corridor we were walking down led to a narrow staircase that wound upwards. It was pitch black on the staircase – no moonlight to help guide the way. I took an omnilume from my pocket, snapped it so it lit the way and started to climb. The steps were steep and narrow and worn down in the middle from years of being trodden on. There were so many steps to climb that my legs were aching by the time we got to the top.
There was a tiny door at the top of the staircase, but there was no handle and no lock. Next to the door was a small portrait of an elderly man with long white hair. Underneath the picture was the man’s name, Lord Avalon.
“Do you think Lord Avalon used to live in this castle?” Zoe whispered.
“I guess so,” I whispered back. I pointed to the door. “How do we get in there?”
“Who cares,” Zoe said, her voice trembling. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” I asked.
“THAT!” she said.
At that moment, I heard something that sounded a bit like a gush of wind and a bit like someone’s voice. I couldn’t make out what it said, but then the voice spoke again...
“Only by truth will you enter...”
The voice didn’t sound human. It didn’t even sound alive. I’ve heard the groaning of Egyptian mummies before and the voice on the staircase sounded just like that. No way I was hanging around to meet the undead – not without better Adventuring tools in my pocket!
We heard it again. “The truth!”
“OK, let’s go,” I said nervously, nearly bashing into Zoe as I turned around and headed back down the staircase.
The voice spoke again, louder this time, like it was following us. “Only by truth...”
As the voice became louder, I could hear the sound of clanking metal coming towards us. It sounded like a knight in chain mail marching along.
By the time Zoe and I were at the bottom of the staircase, we were running for our lives.
We ran straight into a man.
“Arrrrrrhhhhhh!” we both screamed at the top of our lungs.
The man put a bony finger over his lips and glared at us through squinted eyes.
“Don’t go shouting, you’ll wake them...” he growled. He was tall and thin with grey hair and a blue blazer on. His face was drawn and he had dark circles under his eyes.
“Wake who? We’re miles away from the dormitories,” I said, trying not to sound seriously freaked out.
The man smiled knowingly. “I’m not worried about waking the living. I’m worried about waking the dead!”
“OK,” said Zoe, her voice shaking manically. “Well, we’ll be getting back to bed then...”
“Wait!” said the man.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“My name’s Jonas,” he replied. “I’m the caretaker of Avalon Castle. As was my father, my father’s father and his father before that. It’s not just the castle I care for, but I care for its secrets too.”
“Why are you telling us this?” I asked suspiciously. I felt Zoe glare at me. I knew she’d rather be running away from this guy at the speed of lightning rather than sticking around to find out who he was. But I’m an Adventurer, and it’s my job to ask questions, even if I’m afraid what the answer might be.
“I saw you arrive,” he said to me. “I saw that around your neck.” He pointed at my amulet.
I reached down and grabbed my amulet tightly, tucking it back beneath my T-shirt.
“So what?” I shrugged.
“Come with me,” he said.
“I think we’d rather...” Zoe started.
“OK,” I said, cutting her off. She gave me a look that told me she’d fry my guts up with onions if she could.
Jonas walked off, and I tugged Zoe’s arm and started following him. We walked behind him and he led us to a corridor that Zoe and I hadn’t explored yet. Jonas stopped and stared up at a large picture of three knights. The knights were all holding swords and had metal helmets on their heads, hiding their faces.
I heard my name being screeched louder than a jet plane revving its engines.
Mrs Jones.
She was storming down the corridor towards us.
“What are you doing out of bed at this time, and Zoe, I am deeply disappointed in you!”
I turned around, looking for Jonas to get us out of trouble, but he was nowhere in sight.
Mrs Jones grabbed my arm tightly and marched us back to our rooms. “We’ll discuss this in the morning!” she said angrily.
She didn’t even give me a chance to say goodnight to Zoe – she literally threw me into the dorm!
I thought about what Jonas had said. What was the Talisman of Truth? Were the knights still looking for it? Could the castle really be haunted?
I took out my SurfM8 and typed away:
Zoe didn’t IM back. But she had always, always IM’d back before...
