Secrets and Shadows

by Bryan Chick

  “Dear scouts!” he said. The old man brushed his hand down his beard. “I hope your travels weren’t too arduous.”

  “I guess that depends on what arduous means,” said Ella. “If it means being tossed through a jungle by a bunch of monkeys, then . . . yep . . . pretty arduous.”

  Mr. Darby smiled. “Once you learn to fully trust the apes, the Secret Metr-APE-olis will be a pleasure to cross.”

  From the chair beside Mr. Darby’s, another man rose. The sheen on his bald head matched that of the shiny marble fountain. Towering over everyone, his body bulged with mounds of muscle. Tank.

  “What’s up, little dudes?” he said. “Welcome back.”

  Tank stepped forward and greeted Sam and the other teenagers. Instead of shaking their hands, he reached out his fist and, one by one, let the four of them softly punch it.

  Megan leaned toward Noah and whispered, “You’ve got to be kidding me. Tank likes these jerks?”

  Noah shrugged his shoulders. He was too confused to speak. Something was going on with the teenagers. Something peculiar.

  Mr. Darby swung his arm toward the scouts’ escorts, saying, “I see you’ve met the Descenders.”

  “The who?” Noah said.

  “The Descenders,” Mr. Darby repeated. “Tameron, Hannah—”

  Tameron interrupted, saying, “We didn’t mention that.”

  “Hmmm.” Mr. Darby touched a finger to his lips, and his forehead wrinkled. “I suppose there will be plenty of time for words. During the training, I mean.”

  With no hint of enthusiasm, Sam nodded in agreement.

  “Training?” said Ella. Concern furrowed her brow, and she glanced at her friends. “Am I missing something here? Did I, like, fall asleep and miss five minutes of the conversation?”

  Mr. Darby smiled. Then he stepped in front of the animals that the scouts were sitting on. He reached out and stroked the heads of Blizzard and Little Bighorn. The two animals nudged against his palms lovingly.

  “I apologize, scouts. I’m jumping ahead. I haven’t mentioned my proposition—the very reason I asked you here today.”

  “Proposition?” said Megan.

  “I’ll put it very simply.” Mr. Darby clasped his hands behind his back and spent a moment rocking on his feet. Finally, he touched the snouts of Blizzard and Little Bighorn, leaned forward, and whispered, “How would the four of you like to join us”—he frowned—“in preventing the end of the world?”

  Chapter 8

  A Proposition at the Fountain Forum

  The scouts were silent. They sat perfectly still atop Blizzard and Little Bighorn. In the group around Mr. Darby, only the prairie dogs moved, continuously stirring up leaves as they dashed around the ankles of the polar bear and the rhino.

  For Noah, Mr. Darby’s words jarred a memory of the scouts’ first meeting with Tank, outside of Creepy Critters. At that time, Tank alluded to someone being in danger, and when Richie asked who, Tank simply replied, “Everyone—the whole world.” Now, two weeks later, Mr. Darby had insinuated the same thing.

  Hannah finally ended the silence by popping a bubble and letting the gum smack her mouth. She licked the thin, sticky paste from her lips.

  “Ooo-kay,” said Richie, his voice quivering. “All this talk from you guys about the world ending and stuff—it’s really starting to freak me out.”

  “I’m with Richie,” said Noah.

  “Understandably,” answered Mr. Darby. “It comes with the territory of our plight.”

  Ella said, “Let’s hear this proposition—the one where we help save the world.”

  The old man whisked his book off his chair and plopped back into the cushions. He swept one side of his trench coat over his legs and flattened the wrinkles with his palm. Noah found it a bit odd that he would cover himself. Could he possibly be cold?

  “Over the past two weeks, I’ve spoken at great length with the Secret Council, and we have unanimously decided to offer you the opportunity to become Crossers.”

  “Crossers . . .” said Noah. “You mentioned this the last time we were here. What exactly is a Crosser?”

  Mr. Darby gathered his bushy beard in his hand and stroked it to a point. “A Crosser, in its simplest terms, is someone who passes between our zoos—the Clarksville Zoo and the Secret Zoo. A Crosser can cross from one zoo to the other, cross an entire sector, or cross from a sector into the City of Species.”

  “Like we just did,” said Ella. “Through Metr-APE-olis.”

  “Exactly so.” Mr. Darby continued to stroke his beard. “As you know, the Clarksville Zoo exhibits have hidden entrances to different sectors of the Secret Zoo— sectors that connect to the City of Species, the core of our kingdom. Though these entrances were made for animals, our human Crossers use them, too. A Crosser’s biggest responsibility is to guard these entrances, which we call sector gateways, or simply gateways. To do this successfully, Crossers are trained to effectively cross any sector.”

  “Are they all human?” Richie asked. “The Crossers, I mean.”

  “Not at all.” Mr. Darby turned to Megan. “Remember the monkeys you spotted on the rooftops of your neighborhood when this all began?”

  Megan nodded. “They weren’t supposed to be there, right? They snuck out of the zoo?”

  Mr. Darby couldn’t restrain a smile. “Oh, they snuck out of the zoo, but they most certainly were supposed to be there. They were Crossers—Crossers that patrol the border of the Clarksville Zoo. Some animals post in the trees of your neighborhood at night. We—”

  “Whoa!” Ella said. “Did you just say they post in our trees?”

  Mr. Darby nodded. “Indeed.”

  “Since when?” Ella asked.

  “Since long before you were born.”

  “What?”

  Mr. Darby laughed, then said, “We post tarsiers, mostly. But others as well. Our world invades yours once yours falls to darkness.”

  “Way, way, way cool!” said Richie.

  Noah steered the topic back. “How many Crossers are people?”

  “Not many. Most people are dedicated to the Inside or the Outside. Most don’t have the courage to cross.”

  Richie said, “And what makes you think we do?”

  “Seeing is believing.”

  “Huh?”

  “You crossed through Little Dogs of the Prairie, Penguin Palace, and the Chamber of Lights—without even knowing how to! Don’t think this happened without the notice of the Secret Council.”

  “Yeah, but we were—”

  “On top of that, we just put you through a test—a test you passed very smoothly, I should add.”

  “What?” said Noah. “A test?”

  “The Secret Metr-APE-olis,” said Mr. Darby. “That test was proposed by the Secret Council. I apologize for not announcing it beforehand, but Council insisted that the four of you not know.” Mr. Darby glanced at Tank. “How many prospective Crossers would you say fail to cross the Secret Metr-APE-olis?”

  Tank smiled, and his perfect teeth gleamed like pearls against his dark skin. “Don’t know. But most of them, that’s for sure.”

  Mr. Darby turned back to the scouts. “Not many people have the emotional strength to swing across a forest from the arms of apes, I assure you. Yet, the four of you crossed with ease. Most didn’t think you would.” Mr. Darby gestured toward Sam and his companions. “Even our young Descenders doubted your ability.”

  Noah wondered if this was partly why the Descenders didn’t like them—because the scouts had proven them wrong.

  “Hold on,” Ella chimed in. “Your Crossers don’t seem to be doing such a great job of things. Nobody stopped us from sneaking into the Secret Zoo a few weeks ago.”

  Mr. Darby laughed and said, “That’s because the animals protecting the sector gateways wanted you in—to find Megan and solve the mystery of her disappearance. Think about it. The prairie dogs, Podgy, Blizzard, Little Bighorn—they’re all Crossers, and they all wanted you inside
.”

  “That makes sense,” said Megan. “But what about me? I was able to sneak in.”

  “Which made only the second time our borders were breached,” said Mr. Darby. “Not so bad, given our history.”

  “Who breached your borders the first time?” Richie asked.

  Mr. Darby frowned at the thought. “We’re about to get to that.”

  Megan shifted the conversation back, saying, “How come I wasn’t noticed when I came through the Chamber of Lights? Who was guarding that exhibit?”

  “Charlie Red. And I assure you, his work is normally exceptional. But that day, Charlie had stepped away from his post to investigate a noise outside the exhibit. By the time he returned, it was too late. You were in.”

  “So that’s why he can’t stand us,” Ella said. “We made him look like a dork.”

  “Perhaps there’s some truth in that,” said Mr. Darby. “No one likes to look incapable of doing his job.”

  A moment passed without question or comment. Then Mr. Darby continued. “Regarding our Crossers, we need more humans. We especially need people to concentrate on the Outside—people who can walk our borders in the Clarksville Zoo without raising eyebrows. People who know the surrounding neighborhood, its residents and properties. People who can cross quickly into the Secret Zoo during an emergency.”

  Megan chuckled nervously. “Mr. Darby . . . we’re kids! We have families. And school.”

  “Yeah,” said Ella. “I have to think that life gets pretty tough for someone who quits the books in fifth grade.”

  Mr. Darby leaned over his knees. “We aren’t suggesting that you give up your lives. Only that you help us in your free time—that you train with us and be alert for unusual activity on the Outside, especially in your neighborhood. Our ability to watch activities on your streets is limited, especially during the day.”

  “Train with you?” said Ella. “Do you have any idea how hard it was for Megan just to get permission to come to the zoo this morning?”

  “Training wouldn’t take the time you might imagine. Maybe two hours, twice a week. Much of the training would take place in the Clarksville Zoo, making it that much easier for you.”

  The scouts glanced at one another and silently considered the proposition. Noah thought about how the Clarksville Zoo was in their neighborhood, right between their houses and their school. After a bit, Noah asked, “How would it work?”

  “The Secret Council has proposed that Tank lead your training. He’ll be assisted by the Descenders. Sam, Tameron, Hannah, and Solana are four of the strongest, most capable Crossers we have. You would train slowly, on weekends, evenings, or any days that you have available.”

  “But what would we tell our parents?” Ella asked. “How would we get out of the house?”

  Mr. Darby looked at Tank, whose smile was broader than ever. The big man reached into a duffel bag beside his chair and pulled out a wad of shirts in the clutch of his massive hand. One by one, he tossed a shirt to each of the scouts. “You’d say this.”

  Noah opened his shirt and laid it on the back of Blizzard’s head. A button-up with vertical stripes, it had an enormous collar that reached across the shoulders. The left side had two patches; one had the words CLARKSVILLE ZOO in loopy cursive writing, and the other read NOAH. The right side had a breast pocket large enough to fit a Harry Potter paperback. It was the ugliest shirt Noah had ever seen.

  “Coooool!” Richie gushed as he buried his entire hand in the pocket. “It has a ton of space for my pens and stuff!”

  Ella rolled her eyes. “A nerd and his nerd gear.”

  “What would we do with these?” Noah asked.

  “You’d work for us,” said Mr. Darby. “Only a few hours a week, of course.”

  Richie raised one eyebrow. “You wouldn’t . . . like . . . expect us to clean the cages or something, would you? I mean, the elephants! Have you seen the size of their . . . you know . . . poop?”

  “You don’t get it, Richie,” Noah said. “Mr. Darby doesn’t want us to work for the zoo. He wants us to make it seem like we’re working for the zoo. We’ll actually be training.”

  “Exactly!” Mr. Darby said. “We call it crosstraining. But to your families, we could easily mask it as volunteering. As you probably know, the Clarksville Zoo offers volunteer opportunities to students at the local schools. It’s a perfect way to present your training as something acceptable to your parents.”

  “How long would the training take?” Noah asked.

  “Since you’d only be training a few hours a week . . . a number of years.”

  “Great,” said Ella. “There goes my soccer career.”

  Tameron suddenly stepped forward. “I can’t take this anymore!” He faced Mr. Darby and waved an arm toward the scouts. “They’re just kids! Kids from the Outside— which is even worse! Yeah, they can cross—I’ll give them that—but they don’t have what it takes. They haven’t seen what we’ve seen. They’re not Insiders, Mr. Darby. They weren’t here the day the shadows were taken!”

  Tameron fell silent. As he turned away, the sunlight struck his jacket at an unusual angle. Noah noticed that the pleats had thin cuts in the bottom of the folds. He wondered if there was a reason for the cuts, but before he had time to study them, the Descender moved out of the light, and they were concealed once more.

  A prickly silence hung in the air. It was the first awkward moment the scouts had shared with Mr. Darby.

  Finally, Noah voiced what all the scouts were thinking. “What was ‘the day the shadows were taken’?”

  Tank shifted in his chair. Hannah stopped blowing air into her bubble, and the pink globe seemed to float in front of her face. The prairie dogs stopped racing and stood on their haunches, their attention switching from Noah to Mr. Darby and back again.

  Sam took a step toward Mr. Darby. “You don’t have to answer that. Remember, we’re talking to Outsiders here.”

  Mr. Darby locked eyes with Sam. For a moment, all that seemed to exist was the contemplative aura about the old man. The splashing water in the fountain made the only sounds.

  Finally, Mr. Darby turned and faced the scouts. “If you wish to know the history of the stolen shadows, it will require your full engagement in our plight. We will need you as Crossers, and we will need you not only to be brave, but to be fearless.” Mr. Darby paused, giving the scouts time to digest his words. “I want you to think before answering. Can you accept the challenge to become one of us? To join our society as Crossers who live on the Outside?”

  In silence, the scouts traded glances, their eyes communicating more information than words ever could.

  At last, Noah said, “If it means helping you—and if it means helping others—then, yes, we accept your invitation to join the Secret Society.”

  Megan, Ella, and Richie nodded in agreement.

  Solana turned to Mr. Darby and said, “You can’t be serious! They don’t know what they’re getting into. They’re kids! Think of their parents! What if their parents—”

  Mr. Darby raised his palm to silence her. The corners of his mouth curled in a smile, and the old man tipped his head at Noah to show his gratitude. Sitting atop a dreadfully powerful polar bear, Noah nodded back.

  “Then, welcome.” The usual emotion had drained from Mr. Darby’s voice. “Welcome to our Secret Society.”

  Blizzard rolled back his head and roared so thunderously that the earth shook, the bookcases rumbled, and every creature in the library held on to branches or furniture to keep from falling. Leaves rained down, flashing color across the magical landscape.

  The old man smiled—a smile that was both warm and wicked. He wrestled his aged body into a comfortable position in the chair. Then he set his eyes on the scouts and began to tell a tale.

  Chapter 9

  Kavita and Khufu

  “Before I tell you about the Taking of the Shadows, you need to understand a piece of history not taught in the books of your schools. Magic is real, and it
comes from the only true magician who has ever existed. She lived around 2500 B.C.”

  “She was a girl?” Ella asked, surprised. “That totally rocks!”

  “She was indeed a girl—a woman, more accurately. She was born in India, and her name was Kavita.”

  Noah’s brow furrowed. The name sounded familiar. He searched his memory but couldn’t place it; as Mr. Darby continued his story, he pushed the thought aside.

  “At an early age, Kavita recognized her talent, but she kept it a secret. She could move things with her mind. Magic! Her magic had but one requirement—starlight. It would work only when the light of the moon or stars shone on her body. In daylight, she was powerless.”

  Richie raised his hand and wiggled his fingers.

  “Yes, Richie?”

  “How do you know this stuff? I mean, ancient history doesn’t have a lot of details.”

  “Yeah,” said Ella. “It’s not like Kavita kept a blog.”

  Mr. Darby couldn’t suppress his smile. “For now, just know that we know. In the end, you’ll know everything, too.”

  This was enough to satisfy Richie. He nodded.

  Mr. Darby continued. “When Kavita was a young woman, she traveled across India and Arabia and down into Egypt. Her travels ended near the village of Giza, on the western bank of the Nile River. There she came upon the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza.”

  “Too cool!” said Richie. “Imagine stumbling across something like that!”

  “Certainly it wasn’t an everyday sight—especially some 4,500 years ago. Kavita headed toward the pyramid— this mysterious and magnificent structure that rose from the earth—and made her way into a quarry.”

  “A what?” said Ella.

  Richie explained before Mr. Darby could reply. “It’s a place where stone is taken from the earth. It usually looks like a huge pit with stone walls. I’m guessing the quarry that Kavita found was supplying stone for the Great Pyramid.”

  “Exactly,” said Mr. Darby. “And it was quite a sight. Hundreds of men standing along the ledges of the walls, pounding chisels into the stone. Huge blocks falling to the ground. Men rolling slabs of stone onto wooden sledges and pulling them across the sandy floor.