The Bad Luck Lighthouse

by Nicki Thornton

  ‘Brockler is wearing a pendant that belonged to a sinister sorcerer. And he removed it from the bath where Mina Mintencress died? Why do people never, ever tell me anything?’ he muttered. ‘I’ll get Dex and Rendleton to organize a search outside,’ he said more loudly, over his shoulder. ‘Do the same inside. Seth – let’s find him, and quickly.’

  34. What’s Frightening You?

  ‘ Let’s start at the top,’ Seth called to Lark as they darted for the staircase. The last time he’d seen Hari Brockler he’d been searching Mina Mintencress’s room. It seemed a good place to begin.

  ‘Where could he possibly have gone?’ said Lark, biting her nails and following. ‘You really think something has happened to him?’

  Seth went into the room and first took in that almost completely circular view of the sea and sky, thinking he might have a chance of spotting the lawyer if he was outside. He scoured for signs of a figure, but from here you just mostly got the never-ending blue and simply could not see all the island’s coves and inlets. He’d have to leave that to Dex and Rendleton.

  ‘I looked in every room in the lighthouse, except the staff rooms, because I didn’t think it was likely Brockler would be there,’ said Lark.

  ‘We should check,’ said Seth

  Angelique had just arrived, looking concerned but far less damp. She heard, gave a quick nod and disappeared again at a run.

  Alfie was hovering uncertainly in the middle of the room, playing with his catapult. Seth hit on an idea. ‘Brockler’s playing that game – hide and seek. Have you played that here? What do you think, Alfie?’ said Seth encouragingly. ‘I bet you know all the best places. Where would you hide?’

  Alfie simply shrugged. He didn’t seem the least bit interested, just kept flexing the catapult.

  ‘It’s a game we can all play,’ joined in Lark encouragingly. ‘You always have the best idea of places to hide.’

  ‘I don’t know where he is. I didn’t see him do anything strange.’

  ‘You didn’t see him do anything strange?’ echoed Seth, moving closer to the boy, convinced this meant entirely the opposite.

  Lark had the same idea as she crouched next to the small boy, whose bottom lip wobbled. ‘What is it?’ urged Lark. ‘Do you know something?’

  Alfie turned huge, frightened eyes on her but said nothing. Lark caught him by the hand. ‘Alfie, no one will be cross, but if you’ve seen Mr Brockler, if you know anything, you really should tell us.’

  But Alfie stubbornly shook his head. Lark drew in an impatient puff of breath. Seth was convinced the boy knew something. He’d noticed Alfie had become silent and withdrawn. That might be under-standable after the death of his sister, yet when swimming with Rendleton and on the boat trip, he’d appeared to be coping well. Something had happened. Seth remembered how Alfie was convinced he had seen the ghost – even though he’d called it something else.

  Seth had a feeling the boy knew things, and something about Brockler’s disappearance was troubling him. How could they convince him to talk?

  Angelique returned, shaking her head. ‘He’s not in the staff rooms and it’s getting dark. Rendleton and Stormforce are still outside. Let’s hope they’ve seen him about somewhere.’

  ‘Lark’s checked the lighthouse, you’ve checked the staff rooms. What about the Sunrise Wing?’ said Seth.

  ‘No!’ Alfie leapt in. ‘Not there!’

  Lark looked startled and spluttered: ‘But it’s always locked. It’s mostly still just a building site. I don’t think Brockler would go there.’

  Pewter arrived and Seth was surprised to see he was holding a small, framed picture.

  ‘You told me Brockler had a picture that belonged to Snakesmouth,’ he said to Seth. ‘And what did I happen to find but this – on the stairs.’

  The painting was of a happy and confident young man with blond hair and a big smile who was standing in the centre of the lighthouse, immediately recognizable even without the thick carpet and the shimmering wallpaper.

  ‘I think this is a picture of Soul Snakesmouth,’ said Pewter.

  Seth was intrigued to see that the sinister sorcerer was so much younger, so much happier-looking than he’d imagined him. Seth had always pictured him as sallow, thin and glowering.

  Looking more closely at the picture, Seth was immediately intrigued by something else.

  ‘What’s he doing?’

  Rather than looking straight at the artist, Snakesmouth had been painted facing out of the picture, with one hand lifted above his head.

  ‘That is a really strange way to pose for a picture,’ said Angelique, putting her long nose so close to the portrait that it almost touched it.

  Seth went over to Alfie and crouched in front of him, showing him the picture. ‘When you say you didn’t see Brockler doing anything odd – did you mean you didn’t see him doing anything odd with this picture?’

  Alfie was puzzled by the question. ‘Er, yes.’

  ‘Then he did do something odd with this picture?’

  Alfie hesitated then nodded, just once.

  ‘Perhaps, Alfie, you could show us where you were and tell us what strange thing happened. Take your time,’ said Pewter.

  Everyone turned to Alfie. He hesitated for just a moment and then set off down the spiral stairs until they were halfway between the ground and the first floors. Then he stopped. They had all followed and now Pewter turned to the boy.

  ‘I’ve seen some extraordinary things in my time,’ Pewter said to Alfie. ‘Whatever you tell me, no matter how mad it sounds, I’ll believe you because I particularly love stories like that. See if you can surprise me, but I bet you can’t.’

  Alfie looked at him for the longest time, then gave a short nod. ‘I saw him disappear.’

  ‘Disappear?’ snapped Lark. ‘If this is your idea of a joke, Alfie, I will kill you.’ She stood over him, hands on hips. ‘You little monster, you’re just making this up.’

  ‘Miss Sunrise, might I suggest you leave this to me,’ said Pewter.

  Rendleton and Dex arrived from outside, looking breathless and windswept. Dex went straight over to the picture, seizing it from Seth.

  ‘Wow. This is the guy? Where’d this come from? Wondered what old Snakesmouth looked like. Not that old, actually.’ He turned and gave his lopsided grin at Rendleton. ‘Surprisingly like you.’

  Dex grinned, but Rendleton only frowned.

  This surprised Seth, who had rarely seen Rendleton anything other than cheerful and positive.

  ‘Alfie is about to show us how Mr Brockler disappeared,’ said Angelique.

  They all looked at Alfie, apart from Dex, who was scrutinizing every detail in the picture.

  ‘Exactly where?’ asked Pewter. ‘Are we in the right place?’

  Alfie turned and looked in silent anguish at Pewter.

  ‘Here?’ asked Rendleton, his voice full of disbelief.

  ‘He disappeared from here?’ said Dex, beginning to run his hands lightly over every surface.

  ‘Alfie, you are a lying little toerag. This is serious,’ snapped Lark. ‘How could he possibly have disappeared from here?’

  She was right. You couldn’t access any of the rooms from this point, only continue up or down. How on earth was it possible that Brockler could disappear?

  Seth examined the portrait again as he tried to work out the exact spot where Snakesmouth had been. The sinister sorcerer was raising his right hand and was holding something that had been painted in great detail. Seth peered in closer and could make out a small wooden object he recognized – of a snake devouring a lighthouse with small red jewels for eyes. ‘He’s holding that carving that’s supposed to be made from a dragon’s tooth,’ he said in a low voice. Dex kept glancing from the picture to the walls.

  Lark was still looking furious. ‘This story gets more ridiculous. Why on earth would anyone want to look at a picture on the stairs and then disappear?’

  ‘He stopped right here.’ Alfie sound
ed mulish. ‘He did.’

  ‘And what did he do next?’ asked Pewter.

  ‘I told you, he disappeared.’

  The only thing that was just a little odd was that at this point the stairs widened slightly. In fact, they seemed to go slightly off being right in the centre of the lighthouse. From here, Seth realized, you could reach out and touch one of the walls.

  ‘Sorry, what exactly is this?’ said Dex, pointing to Snakesmouth’s hand in the picture. ‘What’s he holding?’

  ‘The dragon’s tooth pendant,’ said Seth, and explained again about Jo’s thieving and why the pendant and the picture had never been discovered during Copious Bladderwrack’s cleaning.

  Dexter nodded enthusiastically and went about trying to recreate the exact pose Soul Snakesmouth was striking in the picture, running his fingers over the smooth banisters and reaching for the wall.

  Pewter tried again with Alfie. ‘OK, young man. Remember everything you can. Close your eyes if you need to. Be as precise as possible.’

  ‘He was feeling about. Then he walked right down that wall over there and disappeared.’

  ‘Oh please!’ snapped Lark.

  Nightshade padded softly up the stairs. Until now she had kept herself pretty well hidden and everyone might not have even known she was here.

  Seth quickly scooped her up and whispered in her ear to please remember not to talk.

  ‘But you’ll want to hear what I’ve got to say,’ she purred, very softly in his ear. ‘You’re not the only one who can play detective, you know. I watched him earlier. He was pacing about, walking up and down the stairs, just like the boy says, holding that picture. He was here for ages. I guess he must have come back and tried again. Whatever he was looking for, I’m guessing he found it, which might not be altogether good.’

  She wriggled out of Seth’s arms and went and rubbed against Alfie’s legs and the boy bent to envelop her in a big hug.

  Seth joined Dex in reaching to one of the wooden beams that criss-crossed the inside of the lighthouse. The wood felt bumpy and grained, and his fingers brushing over something that felt like a deeper indent than the other knots and grooves of the wood. He beckoned Dex.

  Dex checked the picture again. This had to be exactly the same place where Snakesmouth was lifting aloft the hand holding the carving.

  Dex smoothed the beam with his fingers, frowning, rubbing it, then pressing hard. Pewter joined them and did exactly the same. The inspector fumbled in a pocket and brought out a small grey ball of what looked like putty. He warmed it in his hand for a moment, then squished it into the deeper dent in the beam.

  ‘What’s that?’ asked Seth in a low voice. ‘Some kind of substance that detects magical doorways?’

  ‘No, it’s a small grey ball of putty,’ said Pewter, carefully removing it again. He held it in his palm, revealing that the putty had now taken on the shape of the indent. It had a familiar twisting form.

  ‘That’s it,’ cried Seth. ‘That’s the carving that Mina Mintencress started wearing as a pendant.’

  ‘It’s not a pendant, it’s a key,’ said Dex.

  ‘What are you talking about, mate?’ asked Rendleton.

  Dex was hesitating, but with everything that had happened, the truth that Snakesmouth really had been a sorcerer was bound to leak out anyway. He explained about the hidden laboratory and how the entrance was so secret, not even an expert had been able to find it. ‘But what really worries me is that Brockler is wearing this key,’ he finished.

  Angelique sent a sharp crackle of blue light from her divinoscope into the indent, making Alfie, Lark and Rendleton gasp.

  Then everyone waited for something to happen. The room got darker. Seth wasn’t sure if he imagined it, but he felt the shadows had begun to creep in.

  The atmosphere had changed.

  Something dark flitted in the corner of his eye and he tried to turn quickly.

  Where the wall had been completely blank before, something was coming into focus. The shadows were forming a dusky image that was gradually becoming clearer.

  It was a set of steps, leading down into darkness.

  35. Darkwitching Magic

  ‘ This is where Brockler went?’ said Rendleton, sounding incredulous and looking uncertainly at the shadow steps.

  ‘Can we, like, actually walk on these?’ asked Lark giddily, as everyone stared and tried to take in what they were seeing.

  ‘I expect you’ll find you can,’ said Pewter, gingerly extending one of his long legs and putting it on the top step. ‘Although maybe not that you should.’

  Pewter took another step down and Angelique leapt in behind him, closely followed by Dex. Seth took a step forward too, his brain having difficulty registering that the black shadow felt firm under his boot, and cautiously walked into a dark space. A space that took them, step by step, beneath the lighthouse.

  Seth saw with relief that Pewter was now cradling a spark of light in the palm of his hand, so they weren’t simply walking into blackness.

  Behind him, he was aware that Rendleton, Lark and Alfie were following curiously too.

  They reached a circular room lined with shelves. Everything was covered with a layer of dust; the long, stainless-steel table with its combination of test tubes, clamps and Bunsen burners was almost exactly as they had seen in the wordstone. Seth found himself face to face with the container and the bug-eyed creature that looked like it was staring right at you. He reached out and, this time, was able to touch it. Soul Snakesmouth’s secret laboratory. The room Copious Bladderwrack had failed to find when he’d cleaned the lighthouse, here all the time, but buried within the shadows of darkwitching magic.

  He could smell the room this time too. A sort of citrusy tang.

  There was the sound of something soft stubbing against something hard and immovable, and a curse.

  ‘We could do with a bit more light,’ grumbled Rendleton.

  Dex tried a lamp on the table. He flicked a switch and a light gradually buzzed into life, filling the room and bringing the edges into focus.

  It showed that, beneath the long laboratory table, on the floor of the shadow study, was the sprawled body of Hari Brockler and, alongside him, the dragon’s tooth carving.

  36. Still a Long Way from the Truth

  ‘ Is he dead?’ asked Rendleton, as Pewter crouched to examine the body.

  Pewter looked up. ‘Strangled.’

  Lark quickly drew Alfie to her.

  Pewter prodded the dragon carving gingerly with his toe. ‘He was wearing the pendant, just like poor Mina Mintencress in her bath. It’s unwise to wear something so absorbed by darkwitching magic, and those shadow snakes. Looks like Brockler fought to take it off, but the magic was too strong for him.’

  That citrusy tang should have warned Seth, and he thought back to the battle he and Angelique had had in the room where Mina died.

  He was taking it all in, but his mind was reeling at the same time.

  He’d been so convinced it was Brockler who had been responsible for Mina’s death. Seth had thought he’d got it all worked out, thought Brockler had planned how, by becoming Alfie’s guardian, he could pretty much seize complete control of the family’s vast fortune.

  He’d been trying to find evidence that Brockler had learnt about magic, believed in the magic and had been experimenting with trying to become magical himself. Seth had been convinced that all the answers lay in the fact that the lawyer had learnt enough shadow sorcery to arrange Mina’s death and make it look like an accident.

  But now Brockler was dead and nothing added up any more. As he looked at the body of the lawyer, he knew that he was still a long way from the truth.

  ‘Well, we’ve found the laboratory, largely thanks to Mr Brockler,’ began Dex. ‘Guess that is one mystery solved.’

  From above them came a scream.

  Silhouetted at the top of the steps and staring down at them was Celeste. Her hands were clapped to her face.

 
Seth rushed back up the steps to steady her. She was gasping for breath between sobs.

  ‘He’s dead. Another death? He can’t be dead,’ she wailed as Seth steered her away.

  ‘You? But how?’ he heard Lark say in a puzzled voice, looking up from where she was comforting Alfie.

  Celeste clung to Seth and didn’t protest as he led her down the stairs, through the kitchen and to her room. He wanted to go and make some strong sweet tea. But Celeste held on to him and he sat on her hard bed and let her sob.

  ‘What was that room? Was he really dead? What is happening?’

  Seth found it really difficult to know what he could say that was going to make this any easier. ‘Perhaps you need to talk to Inspector Pewter. Let’s get everyone tea.’

  Celeste wiped her eyes, pinched her cheeks and said she would help.

  Seth was still trying to puzzle through the big questions. Who had killed Mina Mintencress if it wasn’t Brockler? And who had killed Hari Brockler? Who had woken those shadows?

  Seth puzzled through what he’d learnt from Pewter and Angelique about how magic worked. Magic didn’t work by itself. That darkwitching magic had to be controlled by someone – and that had to mean a powerful sorcerer – here. But it still made no sense. Who could be a powerful sorcerer? Brockler had been his best bet.

  ‘Brockler started to go on about a bad sorcerer having lived here,’ said Celeste as they made tea. ‘I thought he was just believing too many tales. Then I wasn’t sure. Then I thought he was using the ridiculous stories and doing those things to make us think there was something supernatural going on here. When Mina died, I thought . . .’ Celeste blew her nose and sat down at the kitchen table.

  ‘Did you think he killed Mina?’ said Seth quietly.

  ‘I thought he must have done. Now Brockler’s dead so I guess he didn’t?’ Celeste looked questioningly at Seth. ‘Or did he? But then who killed him? And who killed Mina?’