“What are you going to do?” Cami asked. Sab flashed his eyes at her but said nothing. That’s when Cami began to understand exactly what he was doing. “Oh no you don’t.”
In a sudden move, she swatted the tonic bottle to the floor with the bug still scurrying inside. It shattered with a crash.
“You…you will regret this,” Sab hissed in her ear.
“No, you will, Mr. Sab.” Cami squashed the distended earwig under her heel, tonic oozing like gel from the sides. “You may have my mother fooled, but I know what you are.”
Mr. Meriwether, Max, and the boys were already at the door. “Let’s go, Evelyn,” Mr. Meriwether commanded. Cami took her mother by the arm. Mrs. Meriwether kept apologizing to Pothinus Sab as she was pulled from the room.
Once the Meriwethers were gone, Sab furiously hurled the blue box at the wall, splintering it. Then a thought, like a thunderbolt to the back of the head, restored his good mood. He quickly snatched a handful of Ammit amulets from a basket near the door and ran down the hall after the Meriwethers.
“My dear children, before you go, take one of these amulets as my gift to you. So sorry for the misunderstanding. Please, please wear them always. Never be without them. They will mark you for regeneration in the days to come.”
At Peniel, the afternoon sunlight shone through pastel windows, casting gentle colors over the exhibits in Bethel Hall. Lucille Wilder gingerly positioned a pair of large metal keys into an open glass case. THE KEYS OF ST. PETER the plaque on the front read. She nearly dropped them when Bartimaeus called her name.
“Luuuucille? Luuuucille?” he yelled out.
“I’m here, Bart. In the corner.” She caught sight of him and Tobias Shen in their gray Perilous Falls city worker uniforms. Giggles followed. “And what have we been up to?” She removed her cotton gloves and locked up the case. “This’ll be good.”
“We have been spraying every house and park in town with holy water,” Shen confided to her. “Twenty-four refills later, we got everything.”
“Almost everything,” Bartimaeus said, galloping toward her on his crutches. “There was one crazy woman who wouldn’t let us spray her house. Maybe we’ll try to get her later. We even sprayed down city hall during lunchtime. The security’s pretty awful there.”
“The sheriff’s department was a different story. Lots of officers running around. We didn’t want to get arrested, so we skipped a few buildings: the jail, the sheriff’s office, the parking area. It was much, much too risky. Otherwise, we got most of the town,” Tobias said, removing his hat with some satisfaction.
“Sounds like you had a productive day,” Lucille said. “Things have been a bit weird here. You must know that the sleeve of Moses’s staff was discovered in Baldwin’s office.”
“So the abbot told ya?” Bart said.
“He did indeed. When I quizzed Valens about it this afternoon, he was very sweet. He tried to make excuses for the vicar the whole time.”
“Do you believe him, Lucille? Valens, I mean?” Shen’s flat eyes pierced right through her.
“Why should I doubt him? Most of the brothers in this house would hang Baldwin out to dry. Not Valens. He kept insisting that there had to be another explanation and that the vicar would never do such a thing. I don’t know what to believe.”
“Lucille.” The low, regal voice reverberated off the vaulted ceiling.
They all turned to find Baldwin approaching from the library in the front of Bethel Hall. He was as imperious as ever. “Where is your great-nephew?”
“I haven’t seen him,” Lucille said. “Though he should be coming around this afternoon.”
“He has been strangely absent of late—skipping his training sessions. Just the sort of thing a guilty party would do.” Baldwin moved with the determination of a tank down the center aisle of the hall. “He is either guilty as sin or too juvenile to understand how he is compromising this community.”
Bartimaeus leaned toward Tobias. “Sounds like the stove calling the furnace hot,” he mumbled.
“I know your feelings for your nephew, Lucille,” Baldwin said as quietly as he could, slipping his hands inside the folds of his habit. “But you must admit the possibility that he may have taken the staff. When I discover why”—he eyeballed Bartimaeus—“I hope you will support me in bringing justice to this house.”
Lucille violently crossed her arms. “Vicar, I am for justice, whoever might be in need of it.”
Baldwin looked confused by her response. “Good. Do let me know when William resurfaces.”
Baldwin turned his hawkish nose away from the group and followed it toward the rounded opening that led farther into the museum.
When he was out of earshot, Tobias whispered, “He has a serious problem with Will. He is always after the boy. Bitter, bitter all the time.”
“Keep your eyes on Baldwin. He may well be our man.” Lucille stared coldly down the empty hall that swallowed the vicar. “He had access to the exhibit case keys, time to hide the staff, and the gold wrapping was found in his office. Though why would he steal it and for whom?”
“No idea. But I don’t like the way he hates on Will.” Bartimaeus cracked his knuckles. “Vicar or no, he’d better back off if he knows what’s good for him.”
Lucille laid her hands on Bart’s. “Never you mind, dear. Baldwin will have to get past this Wilder before he touches a hair on my nephew’s—”
“Lucille Wilder?” It was an official-sounding voice with a slight drawl. It came from one of the two officers standing in the entry of Bethel Hall. They wore tan uniforms and held their hats at their sides.
Lucille’s eyes filled with worry. But Bartimaeus spoke before she could. “How can we help ya, Officers?” Tobias Shen inched behind a case, hoping the deputies would not spot his city worker uniform.
“I’m sorry about this, ma’am.” The officer ignored Bartimaeus and directed his comments to Lucille. “We have a warrant for your arrest. You’re wanted for questioning about your involvement in some odd events around town. You’ll have to come with us.”
Though Lucille’s lips tightened in anger, she maintained her composure. “Bart. Tobias.” She locked her blue eyes on theirs. “Call Dan, tell Brother Amalric what’s happened, and do keep watch over Will. He’s in great danger.”
She walked toward the tense deputies, tugging at the collar of her powder-blue silk jacket. “All right, gentlemen. Let’s get this over with.”
A hairy paw clenched the sapphire staff while a single talon scraped the third set of letters engraved on the side of the rod. The Hebrew letters instantly burned with a white glow. After it was raised toward Perilous Falls’s purpling sky, the staff was suddenly driven into the dry dirt. Dust swirled around the rod. A filthy funnel of debris spun upward. Aside from the rushing wind, all that could be heard in the expanding cyclone of dirt was the deranged yowling of some unearthly creature.
Will tentatively approached Bobbit’s Bestiary. He pressed his face to the front glass, cupping a hand around his eyes to see if Mr. Bobbit was inside. He spotted Ann Hye at the rear of the store, tending to the cages. He pulled open the front door and ran smack into Crocket, the old storekeeper who pointed a broom handle at Will’s chest.
“What d’ya want, son?”
“I, uh, need to talk to Mr. Bobbit,” Will said, sliding the broom handle away with a finger. “I only need a few minutes.”
“He ain’t here,” Crocket croaked, stepping aside. “You best be getting on your way.”
Will slipped past him. “I’ll talk with Miss Ann for a minute instead.”
“Miss Ann?!” Crocket shot a look over his shoulder toward the back of the store, his expression confused. “You shouldn’t be here. When Mr. Bobbit’s away, you shouldn’t be in the store. Don’t touch anything—and if Mr. Bobbit isn’t back soon, you’re going to have to go.” Frustrated, Crocket gave up and went outside to sweep the walk.
The geese began to honk and hiss madly.
/> Crocket eyed him warily through the front glass.
“Miss Ann. I need to talk.”
“Oh. Will Wilder.” The willowy woman seemed shocked as she whirled around. “I didn’t think you’d make it back.” She frantically returned to petting the heads of the geese in the cages. “Poor things are in a state. They’re all going to die. All my beautiful friends are going to die.” She pulled the tangle of black wiry hair away from one eye. “Mr. Bobbit is sending them to their slaughter.”
“How? Why would he want to slaughter them?” Will asked.
“He’s up to no good,” she sang in a warbling tone. “He means to kill them. Mr. Sab wants every one of them.” She folded her arms hatefully and glared at him. “Where are your manners, silly?”
Will self-consciously checked his shirt to see if he had left it untucked or had possibly spilled something on himself.
“Hats shouldn’t be worn indoors. And why are you carrying that bag around?” With agitation, Miss Ann flicked a finger in the direction of the front door. “Put them over there on the table. You’re disturbing the geese.”
Will did as he was told. “Where is Mr. Bobbit now?” he asked, alarmed by the black raven feathers hovering over the floor. They had increased in number since his last visit.
“Mr. Bobbit said he had business. He was just here with that horrible little man. They’re taking all my geese….They spoke of the staff too—the one you asked me about.” Her head bobbed up and down, causing her great tangle of black hair to quiver. “He has the staff. He has it!”
“Mr. Bobbit has it?”
Ann Hye slapped two tiny hands over her mouth and lowered her head. The birds clawed at their cages. “I shouldn’t be telling you this. Mr. Bobbit told me to be discreet, to never talk with strangers, and here I am chittering on about—”
Will checked the cage where he had seen the raven earlier. It was still there; at least that’s what he thought at first. Only the raven seemed half dissolved. It was nearly transparent. Will crouched close to the bars and realized there was no bird. Only a large tooth glimmered in the back of the cage.
“Miss Hye, where is the raven?”
“You don’t see it? Oh, Mr. Bobbit must have taken it. He has taken so many of the birds.”
Will closed his eyes, cleared his mind, and thought of the gold coins he had seen in his great-grandfather’s office. When his eyes popped open, a pile of gold doubloons occupied the cage.
“What are you doing there, Will Wilder?” Ann Hye asked, reaching for a goose’s head. It recoiled into the cage to avoid her touch. “Mr. Bobbit mentioned that Lucille woman today. He did. He did.”
Will rose to his feet, his hands balled into fists. “What did he say about her?”
Ann yanked the frazzled hair surrounding her face forward, as if she were too embarrassed to answer without being veiled. “He said she was dangerous—told the little troll that the old woman was dangerous,” Ann chirped quietly. “Said she had to go.”
Will’s chest pounded and his palms got moist. He wished Bobbit were in the room so he could challenge him…tackle him.
“I need you to tell me one more thing. Is Bobbit ‘feeding on the fattened geese’?”
Ann Hye said nothing.
“Miss Ann, is he ‘feeding’ on ‘the fattened geese’?”
“All the time. Yes. He’s sampled my precious friends. EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE NOT HIS TO HAVE.” Ann Hye scrambled very close, her tiny, irritated black eyes locked on Will’s. She steadied herself. “Mr. Bobbit’s a cruel one. After he visits Sab next, track him. Stop him. There’s no telling what he’ll do to that woman—what’s her name? Lucille. Do you know Lucille?”
Will twitched with fury between the cages of the store. He couldn’t speak. He had to stop Bobbit, but he wasn’t sure what his next move should be. Driven by pure adrenaline, he charged the front counter, grabbed his pith helmet and backpack, and reached for the door. “Miss Ann, I’ll be back tomorrow. Try to find out where Mr. Bobbit’s keeping the staff.”
“I’ll try. I really will.” Ann scurried to the back of the store, picking up the feed bowl in the corner. “Keep our talks secret, Will Wilder. He can’t know that we spoke. Not a word, not a word.” She busied herself running the little gold spoon around the feed bowl.
Will pulled at the store’s front door but tiny pinging noises on the window stopped him. Teeny bugs smacked into the glass. Thousands of black flecks with wings darkened the big window as well. Outside, Crocket was nowhere to be seen, which Will found odd.
He threw open the door and started running toward Peniel. It was only a few blocks down High Street. Aunt Lucille could help him make sense of all the new information he’d gathered. She’d know what to do.
Will heard a slight buzzing in the distance behind him. It grew louder as he ran.
Over his shoulder, he discovered a swirling wall of gnats bearing down on him. He didn’t stop to think but ran from the bug cyclone, taking a sharp left on Phosphorous Way. He hoped the buzzing mass would continue moving down High Street. The swarm had other plans. It came spinning around the corner as if chasing him. Seeing what was headed their way, people along the street scurried indoors. Shutters on storefronts slammed and some folks jumped into their parked cars along the curb.
One elderly woman slowly walking her dog was mobbed by the gnats. They covered her in seconds. She hit the pavement, writhing, hopelessly trying to fend off the bugs. Her dog barked until he, too, choked on the creatures.
This is the third plague! Will thought.
With no one to help the old woman on the sidewalk, Will turned back, running headlong into the swarm. He could barely see, but like the frogs, the gnats avoided him. It was as if an invisible cone deflected the bugs surrounding him. What’s going on? Why aren’t they all over me?
He knelt down to help the old lady to her feet. As he touched her, the gnats flitted away from her body. Will removed his helmet to swat the winged horde. That’s when he realized: It was the pith helmet repelling them. He put it over the old woman’s head and even though the gnats got in his eyes, he delivered her and her dog to their front door. Just before it closed, Will reclaimed his helmet and sprinted down the block.
The street took a sharp turn to the right, but Will dashed straight ahead into the woods that ran behind his neighborhood. The thick overgrowth dispersed the gnat swarm but didn’t stop it.
He scaled the fence into his backyard and headed onto the deck. Gnats by the millions were everywhere, speckling the trees and even the fence. But he was surprised to see that none of them had landed on the houses in the neighborhood, including his own. He banged on the glass sliding door as he watched the lawn turn a jittery, rippling black.
His mother opened the door in the middle of a loud conversation with Dan Wilder. “You should be down there trying to get her out. How long have they had her?” Deb brightened her aggressive tone for a millisecond. “Hi, Will.”
“Deb, I spoke to the sheriff deputies. They…they had a legal warrant. She’s being held without bail!” Dan said, pacing in the middle of the kitchen. “It’ll all work out. We have to just try to keep our heads…”
Will glanced from his mother to his father. “Who are you talking about? Have you seen all the gnats outside?”
“Gnats?” Dan sprang toward the sliding door. He ran his hands up and down the back of his head, a certain sign that he was about to lose it. “Oh my…Where did they come from? The sky is filled with them!”
Deb removed Will’s pith helmet and gently put an arm around his shoulder. She was acting really strange. “Your aunt Lucille…”
“What about her? I need to see her now. I think I know who has the Staff of Moses,” he whispered so Dan couldn’t hear. “Mom? What’s wrong?”
Deb’s lips were tight, her expression confused. “Your aunt Lucille was arrested this afternoon. She’s in jail.”
“They got her? Aaaah!” Will seethed. He threw his backpack into the corner. “I
t’s Bobbit.”
“The man who owns the pet store?” Deb asked.
Dan spun around. “These gnats…are they all over town, Will? This is not good.” He ran to the TV under the kitchen cabinet and clicked on the remote. He found a report on Sidon Eight News, Deb’s prime TV competitor. A blond reporter was unsuccessfully trying to swat gnats away from her face.
“…They’re bombarding the town of Perilous Falls. People we spoke with said they saw them fall from the sky. My cameraman and I ducked into this High Street doorway to try to get away from the…” PUH…PUH. She spat the gnats from her mouth and began pinching her lips with her fingers. “They’re all in my lipstick. Holy cow.” Her huge eyelashes fluttering, she stumbled back a little. The tiny black bugs were overtaking her neck and face. “I think one of ’em’s under my contact. Bob, Bob, I can’t see. A gnat’s in my eye! This is an e”—PUH…PUH…PUH—“mergency. I’ve gotta get these things OFF ME.” She swung the microphone at the gnats and started screaming at the cameraman. “I know, Bob! I can hear the control room. I just can’t see.” PUH. “Okay, we’re going to take you now to a live press conference at the Perilous Falls city hall. Rachel Riker Rutledge, Sidon Eight News, reporting from a”—PUH—“bug-infested High Street.” PUH…PUH…
In the Wilder kitchen, Deb deadpanned to her family: “She actually never looked so good.” Deb rolled her purple-flecked eyes and turned up the volume as Marin and Leo wandered into the kitchen.
Will tried to watch the TV, but Leo pulled him into the hallway leading to the den.
“With all these crazy gnats outside, do you think it’s time for me to ignite? You know, turn my light on?” Leo asked excitedly.
“I’d keep it under wraps.” Will craned his neck to see the TV in the kitchen. “You don’t know what you’re doing yet, Leo.”
“I do. Aunt Lucille and I trained the other day. It was short, but she showed me how to breathe and control my illumination—”
“She trained you?”
Will Wilder #2 Page 15