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Tillie put the key in the lock, turned it, then jiggled the door handle, but it was stuck. She tried again using both hands with more force.
“What did you do, break it? Here, let me try,” Jamie grinned as he nudged her out of the way.
“Very funny. We were in a hurry to get back downstairs last time if you recall, Mister Witling. I locked it like any normal person would.”
“Ha!” Jamie barked.
“It’s probably jammed with rust and just needs to be cleaned,” Graham offered.
“Well, you’re no fun, I’m trying to give Tillie a hard time for being such a foozle.” He pulled the key out, stooped down, and blew into the keyhole.
“Ha, ha!” Tillie replied.
“I’m just stating the obvious,” Graham added.
Jamie stood back up. “Right, of course, nothing out of the ordinary there, Gray.”
Elinora and Lina both snickered.
“What!” Graham said to them.
“Look at you, Jamie!” Tillie cackled. “You’ve got rust particles on your face. Serves you right!”
Jamie furrowed his brow, wiped the grime off, then reinserted the key, wiggling it to clean out the locking mechanism. Then he tried turning the key again. This time there was a click. He bowed in victory.
“As I said.” Graham replied smartly.
“At least I can unlock a door.”
“Touché,” Tillie praised.
Elinora shook her head. “You’re all impossible! Come on then, I want to get in there sometime this century.”
“Oh, who’s the impatient one now?” Tillie teased.
Elinora wrinkled her nose.
Lina laughed at all of them.
Jamie turned the knob and opened the door. “All right everyone, get thee to Sir Edward’s treasure room,” he said, pointing the way.
It had been several weeks since their failed rescue attempt at the circus and they were still traumatized by the encounter. Alister was on their side now and they had continued to meet him at the carousel over the ensuing weeks to plan their next attempt. But they recognized the dangers they faced and were aware that it was imperative they develop a much more solid strategy, considering the situation had grown in both scope and complexity. They knew Coddlefin would eventually visit Waterbridge, and it was likely their only opportunity to act; but still, it was a long distance by foot from town to Kellandale Wood—too far, and much too risky to have an entire circus trying to escape in that manner. They had all grown increasingly frustrated by this logistical stumbling block.
But through her recent reading of Sir William’s journal, Elinora realized how deeply connected he had been to Kellandale Wood. It was her idea to go looking for his other journals, hoping they might contain more passages about the magic of the forest that could potentially help them free Henry and the others. Everyone agreed returning to the storeroom to search for them was a good use of their time. “Look everywhere,” she directed when they finally entered.
They stood at the entrance, candles raised, revealing the heaping mass of treasures. They walked forward into the room as a group, but quickly dispersed as they began to explore.
Graham was drawn to a carved wooden shield and the tarnished sword that lay near it. He lifted the shield off the wooden table; it was surprisingly heavy, so he set it back down gently and surveyed the area for other treasures. “James, come have a look at this one, it’s something you might’ve read about in one of your history books,” he called out.
Jamie hurried over. “That’s old, really old. A suit of armor from Toku, or perhaps Kolin—a perfect specimen from the sixteenth century. Razan empire if I had to wager a guess.” He reached out and put his hand on it, marveling at the rich rust-red color of the fabric and the golden chain mail breast adornment.
“I had a feeling you’d know,” Graham said, smiling. He wandered off and came upon a small dagger with a handle made of jade on another table; the jade matched the eyes of the monkey figurine that Tillie had found. He picked it up and pulled it out of its scabbard then turned it over in his hand. The face and body of a dragon was intricately carved into the blade, and the letter “V” was carved into the handle.
Tillie was on the other side of the room, also exploring, and had been lured by a rack of hanging, colorful blue, black, and green silk tapestries, some of which were adorned with golden threadwork.
Elinora and Lina, meanwhile, had made their way to the far corner of the room together, forgoing exploring the other treasures to look in the area where Elinora had found the first journal. There they picked through a stack of old maps.
Lina opened one and studied it. “Trade routes,” she reported.
They continued searching and Elinora quickly unearthed a large, old chest. She felt around for a latch. A loud click caught everyone’s attention.
“You found them!” Lina exclaimed.
Graham carefully slipped the dagger back into the scabbard and into his pocket, then made his way over to Elinora and Lina, carrying it with him. Tillie and Jamie also made their way through the maze of treasures, passing by an old globe, a cabinet full of bayonets, and a stash of jewelry boxes. Elinora was stooped over, already reading a journal when they got there. Inside the chest next to her were many other journals lashed together in small stacks bound with silk cording. An old, feathered quill pen was tied to one of them.
“Here, there are more,” Lina said, carefully pulling them from the chest and handing them to Tillie, who began lining them up on a nearby table.
“They’re definitely Sir William’s journals,” Elinora said, picking up a random stack and pulling on the cording to untie it. She grabbed the top journal and removed the feather pen, then opened it to the first page. “Property of Sir William.” She handed it to Jamie.
He leafed through and found a drawing of the tower. “It looks like a child drew this,” he said showing the others.
Elinora continued to sift through the other journals, handing another stack to Graham, then she sat down and began reading passages from another. “This one is dated much later. Listen,” Elinora said. She read out loud.
It is hard to believe our beautiful forest has suffered such a terrible reputation through the centuries. If only the rest of the world knew the way it really was. But then again, perhaps it’s best they do not. There are so many animals living here, and while the tales have warded most people off, today I was surprised to discover trespassers within Kellandale Wood. I told Mother and Father, and we chased them off at once.
There was a quiet knock on the open door, startling them back to the present.
“Hello!” Abigail called from outside the storage room. “It’s nearly supper; your mothers have returned early and are unpacking.”
Elinora looked up. “Thank you, we will be right there,” she called back.
They quickly gathered the journals and made their way to the door.
Graham eyed the jade dagger again. “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful,” he said.
“Abigail didn’t seem to think there was any harm in taking the journals,” Tillie reminded him.
He nodded and smiled, then placed it in his trouser pocket for safekeeping.
“We have a lot of reading to do,” Elinora said as Jamie locked the door.
“Let’s split them between us,” Lina suggested.
“If anyone comes across anything of importance, we can meet in the music room tomorrow before everyone else wakes,” Elinora added.
Later that night, they each fell asleep reading passages from Sir William’s journals, and glimpses of life at Kellandale more than two hundred years ago seeped into their dreams...
As planned, they met in the music room in the wee hours of the morning. Tillie and Graham were taking a break and resting their eyes as Jamie practiced his viola. Meanwhile, Elinora and Lina had gone back to the storeroom to look for any other journals they might have missed.
“Don’t be daft, Gray,” Jamie said between staccato strokes on his viola.
Graham was lounging with his head upside down and hanging off the settee, open journals strewn around him. Velvet was sleeping beside him. “You don’t think Mister could take Coddlefin in a fight?” he mumbled, half delirious from hours of eyestrain from the night before.
Tillie snorted. “Mister can do anything.”
The sound of shuffling feet and then someone dropping, then picking up, something outside the music room echoed in the hallway.
“Elinora’s back,” Jamie snickered.
A second later she entered the room with Lina, who walked over to the grand piano and set down another large stack of journals. Elinora followed and placed hers next to the others, wiping away some of the dust. “He was relentless with his pen. There are at least fifteen more to read through,” she announced. “He must have written daily, pages and pages each day. We found these on the other side of the room. They were written much later in his life.”
Lina passed some to Tillie, Jamie, and Graham.
“I think I might go cross-eyed,” Graham replied, as he took four more.
They got settled and began reading again. After twenty minutes had passed, Elinora sat up abruptly. “Listen to this. This was written just after Lady Vivienne died.” She sat down on the floor on her knees and carefully set the book in front of her, placing the old feather pen she had found on top of it as she read.
It has only been a few days since Mother passed. It was sudden, and my heart aches. And while my grief is unbearable, Father’s is even more so. I cannot bear to see him suffer. He has grown weak from a broken heart, and I am afraid for his own health.
Just the other day I found him, returning from the woods, where he had gone the day she passed. He has since asked me to promise, when it is his time, that I will lay him to rest in the river just as he had done for her.
Elinora looked up. The others were staring at her, waiting to hear more. She gingerly leafed ahead a few pages, careful not to damage the old, fragile pages. “This is dated a few days later.”
Father has told me of the wish he made at the river and says it has come true. When pressed further, he claims the river transformed mother into an immortal being, and that she is now there, watching over Kellandale Wood, living deep within the forest in the form of a...
She looked up at the others.
“In the form of a what!” Tillie exclaimed.
“...in the form of a great river serpent,” Elinora mumbled. She read the next passage very quickly, growing louder with each word.
He has gone looking for her every day, but he is beginning to grow weak. All he wishes now is to be with her. I fear he may be losing his faculties.
She put the journal down and the room fell silent.
Does that mean . . . oh, Elinora, read more,” Tillie managed to choke out the words.
Elinora turned the page. “There is a bit of a delay, a few weeks from that entry to this one.” She continued.
Everything I have written, everything I thought I knew, I must now confess that I was wrong. Father is not mad. I have seen with my own eyes and I can feel it, too. Mother is still with us—she lives within the river, deep within the forest, just as Father said.
She leafed through the pages, her hands shaking.
Father lost the will to carry on in this life without Mother. My heart is broken. As promised, at his passing, I placed him into the flowing current of the Iveria. But I know in time I will see him again, though in what form I cannot even guess. And while I know that they both will always be near, it is difficult to bear that both of my parents, as they once were, are now gone.
I now resolve that it is my life’s duty to protect the forest with every means. Though I once thought it was but a child’s tale, I can sense the energy of the forest, and I feel it deeply. It is much more powerful than anyone could ever imagine.
“That’s all there is,” Elinora said looking up incredulously. “It can’t stop there!”
The others began rifling through their journals, but nothing continued from that point. As they searched for the next passage, a stirring came from outside the room. It woke Velvet. Jamie looked up. Mister was at the window and he assumed he had come to listen to him play his viola.
But instead of asking to come in, Mister remained at the windowsill and began to chatter frantically. Without Henry, and without being in the forest, they couldn’t quite understand him as they had grown accustomed to, but they knew it was something very important.
Just then, two loud knocks sounded at the door of the music room. Then the door was pushed open, but no one was there to announce the arrival.
Graham got up quickly, but before he reached the door a striking gentleman stepped silently into the room.
Velvet stood up suddenly, her eyes widened and her gaze fixed on the man.
He said nothing and kept his hands in the pockets of his navy velvet waistcoat.
“Hello,” Graham said to the stranger. “How may I help you?” When there was no reply, he continued. “I am Graham O’Conor, pleased to meet you. My mother is Camille O’Connor, James Wolton’s sister.”
The man bowed politely but still said nothing in return.
“This is my brother, Jamie; and this is Elinora and Tillie Wolton, and Lina Meade,” Graham said, introducing everyone. “Who might you be then?” He put his hand out for him to shake.
Instead of reaching for it, the stranger pulled a book from his coat pocket. He turned to look at Elinora, then bowed to her.
She paused and her mouth dropped open.
Tillie caught a better glimpse of him as well and she sucked in her breath. She looked over at Lina, who also looked stunned.
The man motioned for Graham to take the book.
“Thank you, er, I didn’t catch your name,” he said, taking it, but the man bowed politely at him again, then turned and quickly exited. Graham followed him into the hall, but he had already vanished. He returned to the others. “That was awfully strange...” he muttered.
“Gray,” Elinora said.
“He didn’t even...”
“Gray!” Tillie interrupted.
“What?”
“Did you get a good look at him? Did you see his face?”
“Of course I did.”
“Have you ever looked at the paintings in the portrait hall?”
“What do you mean?” He looked down at the book in his hands. “Erm, he brought us a...this is a journal. One of Sir William’s journals.” He looked back up and locked eyes with Tillie. She nodded.
Just then Mister chattered again. They looked out the window, and Mister was gazing at the sky. They looked up.
Off in the distance a familiar shadow fell onto the ground and was heading toward Kellandale Wood.
“And there goes the Messenger...” Jamie muttered.
Graham stared at the gift in his hands. “It’s bookmarked,” he said.
“Open it!” Lina exclaimed.
It, too, was in Sir William’s handwriting, and it continued where the other journal had left off. Graham began reading the passage.
The magic of Kellandale Wood runs deep indeed, deeper than I can even comprehend—a protective magic for all its inhabitants.
After I lay Father to rest, Mother appeared to me. The forest, it seems, has given her magic of her own. Of course, there had to be something fitting that speaks so much of who my parents were, or I should say are—loving and tragically comedic all at once. Mother, still a novice with her powers, has transformed Father. But his beloved monkey, Chi, would not leave his side and they seem to have become immortally entangled as not one, but two monkeys—one great, one small. Both emerged together from the river after I laid Father to rest. I am not yet certain which one is Father, and which one is Chi.
If one were ever to find this journal of mine, it would sound nothing short of a fairy tale, and perhaps it is. Perhaps I shall share with the world about the river dragon and the great ape that guards the forest. That should be enough to keep the hunters away...
Jamie fell onto the sofa, covering his face with his hands, kicking his feet in the air.
Tillie and Elinora locked eyes.
“Is there more?” Lina asked, reaching for the journal. Graham handed it to her. She picked another passage and read it out loud.
Today a hidden path that leads deep into the woods revealed itself. This is not a place Mother or Father had ever seen. I followed it, and upon reaching its terminus, I found a place to lie down, which, feeling tired, I did so contentedly. As I lay there, I felt something inexplicable—as though the Earth itself was speaking to me. It shared with me great secrets and told me of the three waterfalls. It is a special place, and one that needs to be protected for eternity. I have decided when it is my time to join Mother and Father, I shall ask to watch over Kellandale from the skies.
“The Messenger delivered his journal to us,” Lina said, stunned.
“This isn’t for real is it?” Tillie exclaimed.
Elinora had been tinkering on the keys of the piano absently as she listened to them read, but when she heard this, she abruptly stood up, her eyes wide. “How can we do this...how will we get Henry, Alister, and the rest of the circus here, safely? Our plan has seemed impossible to me all along, and yet with all that has happened in Kellandale Wood, nothing feels impossible to me now.”
Tillie looked up in surprise. “Elinora Wolton, is that you talking?”
“I think you’re right, Nor. And it seems to me Sir William, er, the Messenger is trying to tell us something,” Jamie replied.
There was a knock at the door, halting the conversation. “Breakfast is almost ready,” Abigail said brightly as she entered. But she was astute and knew something was afoot.
“Abigail, can I have a moment?” Elinora asked, then turned to the others. “We can tell Alister what we’ve discovered when we meet later. For now, I’d like to tell Abigail everything that’s happened.” She walked over and picked up the journal Lina had been reading. “Tillie?” she asked. Tillie nodded.
“Right. We will see you both in the breakfast room shortly, and we can talk this out later,” Graham replied, exiting the room with Lina and Jamie.
Tillie followed Elinora.
“Well?” Abigail asked. “You both look like you’ve seen a ghost!”
“It’s...something like that,” Tillie replied.
Elinora shared with Abigail the plan to free the circus they had been struggling to work out.
“All of them? A whole circus, coming here to Kellandale? Sir William himself would never have believed it. You’ve got his blood in you, that’s for certain.”
Elinora glanced at Tillie. “You can tell her the rest.”
Tillie recounted what had just happened with the man in the blue velvet tailcoat and the journal he had brought them. Elinora handed it to her.
Abigail gasped as she flipped through the pages. “Oh, what a clever man. Is it really true? All that power, all that magic in the forest, and I didn’t even know the half of it. Well, if this is what it takes to bring Henry and everyone else home, then it’s what’s meant to be. We’ll just have a busy forest out there!”
Elinora took Abigail’s hand. “Abigail, there’s another problem. There are people in the circus that need help. We saw how they live, and how they are treated by Coddlefin. We have to help them, too, we just can’t figure out how to get everyone here, safely.”
“Théodore Coddlefin is an evil, frightening man,” Tillie scoffed. “And yet his followers think he’s wonderful. How is it possible for people to be fooled so easily? And how can someone just be so awful and cruel?” Tillie asked.
Abigail smiled wanly. “The world can be a harsh and terrible place, indeed. But it can also be a beautiful, wonderful place, too. You’re doing your part to make it the most wonderful it can be, and that’s what counts. I know in my heart you will find a way to help everyone.”
“I hope so.”
“I’ve been such a coward and now I’m really scared,” Elinora said in a whisper.
“Then I am a coward, too, Elinora,” Tillie replied. “I’m very afraid.”
“Come now, you’re all very brave! And you have each other.” Abigail exclaimed. “Have faith in yourselves. Don’t you know? Courage isn’t the lack of fear—courage is when you’re scared out of your mind, but you find it within yourself to move forward and pull off exactly what you’ve set out to do anyway.”