STRANGE
ROUND
BIRD
OR
THE POET, THE KING, AND THE
MYSTERIOUS MEN IN BLACK
Eden Unger Bowditch
Also by Eden Unger Bowditch:
The Atomic Weight of Secrets
and The Ravens of Solemano
Copyright 2017 by Eden Unger Bowditch
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by electronic means,
including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission
from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote passages in a review.
All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
ISBN 978-1-61088-182-1 (cloth) $25.00
Published by Bancroft Press (“Books that enlighten”)
P.O. Box 65360, Baltimore, MD 21209
410-358-0658
410-764-1967 (fax)
www.bancroftpress.com
Cover design and author photo: Steve Parke
Interior design: Tracy Copes
Chapter illustrations and diagrams: Mary Grace Corpus
Printed in the United States of America
TO NATEJULIUSLYRICYRUS AND OLIVE, THE DOG
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MY FATHER, DANIEL PHILIP UNGER.
DAD—YOUR SPIRIT ROAMS THROUGH THESE PAGES AND HAUNTS
THE HEART OF THE STORY. I MISS YOU SO.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: NOAH TELLS HIMSELF A STORY
or Wallace Sees in the Dark
CHAPTER 2: THE CASTLE IN THE SKY
or What Jasper Finds Between the Pages
CHAPTER 3: THROWING IN THE HAT
or The Knights in Black Share A Tune
CHAPTER 4: A NIGHT AT THE OPERA
or What the Curtains Revealed
CHAPTER 5: A LURKING EVIL
or The Disappearance of Ariana
CHAPTER 6: PROMISED PIECES
or A Chronology of Events
CHAPTER 7: A DOG AND HIS BOY
or Faye Scratches Out Clues
CHAPTER 8: NOAH GETS THE PICTURE
or Clues that Show & Tell
CHAPTER 9: NOAH STANDS ALONE
or The Young Inventors Guild Will Not Stand for This
CHAPTER 10: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PAST
or Mr. Bell Reads a Warning
CHAPTER 11: ATKATUUM ETHABIB
or The Man of Words Reads Letters
CHAPTER 12: THE ROYAL LIBRARIAN
or Streets of Silks and Savories
CHAPTER 13: THE LIBRARIAN’S FAVORITE BOOK
or The Brave Niece and the Written Symbol
CHAPTER 14: THE SULTAN’S BEAUTIFUL WIFE
or The Ancient Evils of Komar Romak
CHAPTER 15: NOAH AT THE PALACE
or What the Lockes Had in the Safe
CHAPTER 16: A BOY AND THE PAST
or Noah’s Hotel Tale
CHAPTER 17: THE DEN OF CORLYSS SWAYNE
or How Noah Gets Word
CHAPTER 18: THE MAP AND THE KEY
or The Boys in the Game
CHAPTER 19: ALL UP IN SMOKE
or How Noah Plays the Game
CHAPTER 20: THE GUILT OF INNOCENCE
or The Littlest Boy of Destruction
CHAPTER 21: VECTORS AND FLIGHT PATTERNS
or Lucy’s Butterfly Has a Trunk
CHAPTER 22: A FLIGHT TOWARDS FREEDOM
or Dining with the Enemy
CHAPTER 23: THE SCIENTISTS DIG UP THE PAST
or Mr. Tesla Holds His Nose
CHAPTER 24: A PICTURE THAT TELLS A THOUSAND WORDS
or Noah Carries a Heavy Burden Home
CHAPTER 25: THE STORY OF THE LIVING MAP
or Sir Edward’s Secret
CHAPTER 26: THE POET WHO WOULD BE KING
or The Soprano’s Big Bang Theory
CHAPTER 27: BACK TO THE CASTLE KEEP
or The Safe and the Sound
CHAPTER 28: ARIANA PRESENTS HER PAST
or The Boy Who Keeps His Own
CHAPTER 29: A VERY SELECT FEW
or The World Comes to Istanbul
CHAPTER 30: THE FIVE GIFTS OF SULEIMAN
or The Three Wings, the Element, and the Key
CHAPTER 31: HOW TO FIGHT A DRAGON
or Noah Turns a Key
CHAPTER 32: NOAH’S ONE AND ONLY
CHAPTER 33: THE AVENUE OF THE TENTMAKERS
or The Mapping of Evil
CHAPTER 34: RETURN TO THE DEN OF DARKNESS
or Where Have I Put My Keys?
CHAPTER 35: JOINING THE RANKS
or What Happens When It All Comes Out
CHAPTER 36: FRIENDS FOREVER
or The Young Inventors Guild Wave an Endless Goodbye
Tales From the Archivist
The Mysterious Brothers in Black
Roxalene, The Nefarious Kor, and The Secret Laboratory of Suleiman OR The Story of Roxalene
The Nefarious Kor
The Secret Laboratory of Suleiman (and What Grew There)
The Darkness of Suleiman
The Gentle Son
Il Magna and What Had to Be Done
The Death of a Gentle Soul
Komar Romak
The End of Suleiman’s Reign
The Strange Round Bird
Acknowledgements
About the Author
CHAPTER ONE
NOAH TELLS HIMSELF A STORY
OR
WALLACE SEES IN THE DARK
And so we begin the tale that will bend the mind and challenge the senses…
There were once five rather remarkable children who found themselves deep in a mystery they did not understand…
Wait. Noah rolled his eyes at himself. A mystery they did not understand? Obviously, we did not understand it. It was a mystery.
Five utterly remarkable children found themselves trapped in a mystery. And it made them all quite unhappy. In fact, a series of most unfortunate, yet extraordinary events were thrust…or descended… or…something…upon them. Their adventures, full of dread and fear, full of friendship and new discovery and invention, took them around the world, into dark corners of caves and bright sunlight of…
Of where? Noah Canto-Sagas leaned back into the pillow. How would our story continue?
Noah smiled to himself. Funny, really, that he could smile after all they had endured. But somehow, danger seemed farther away than it had in a long time. Noah was smiling because, whatever they had faced, whatever they might face, right now he was headed to see his mother. He had seen her perform as Aida only once before, when he was small. It was one of the greatest nights of his life. But to see her at the Kedivia Royal Opera House in Cairo, as Aida, on stage…that was a dream.
Noah jumped as a fist pounded against the outer door of his cabin.
“There’s no one in here,” he called out in a voice high and whiney.
“Oh, yes there is,” giggled Lucy. “I know you’re in there because you’ve locked your door.”
Noah rolled out of bed, grabbed a cloth from the washbowl, put it on his head like a babushka, and opened the door. Leaning over, he said in a gravelly and quivering voice, “Well, Missy, you are sorely mistaken. There is no one in this room. I’m the washer woman and I’d be the first to know if a smelly, ginger-headed boy was—”
Lucy, his seven-year-old compatriot with long plaits and freck
led nose, grabbed the towel, laughing and shaking her head. “There you are, Noah,” she said, examining his face. “Come and see something in the laboratory.” She firmly took his hand and he obediently followed her.
“It almost feels as if we’re on a train,” Noah said aloud, looking out of the train car window. They were, in fact, in a train car.
Suddenly, feet were in the air and both children were falling into each other in a clump.
“Not when it does that,” Lucy said, her wrist flying to her mouth, where her lips found her bracelet. It was her habit to chew on the thing. Her eyes grew wide as she looked toward the window and smiled, dropping her hand by her side. “And not when we look out there.”
Lucy was right. A view from a train was one thing. The view from this window was something entirely different. The reason was obvious—they were flying in the air. Lucy and Noah marveled at the sight of the world, hundreds of feet below.
“We’re in an airtrain,” declared Lucy. “It is as if a giant bird with a window belly swallowed us all up.”
“Well,” Noah said, running fingers through his messy hair, “I suppose that’s one way of putting it. It is rather wonderful soaring through the air in a train carried by an airship.”
“Pish posh,” said Faye, who had come up next to them. Around her neck was a small box-camera. It was not like the common Brownie Camera that came out in 1900 and was in the hands of children everywhere. This camera had a button and a lever that made it unique. “Airships are such a thing of the past. Aeroplanes are the future. Aeroplanes will soon be everywhere. Airships are old fashioned. Aeroplanes are a much more efficient mode of travel.” But, try as she might, she could not keep her eyes from the view any more than Noah or Lucy could.
“Well, this particular airship train—‘airtrain’—seems to be rather modern, if you ask me,” said Noah.
“Which I did not,” said Faye, though she had the hint of a smile instead of a scowl.
“What are you doing out here?” asked Jasper, slightly breathless.
“Did you think we’d fallen out?” asked Noah.
Jasper’s cheeks grew red as he realized that was exactly what he had been thinking. “Of course not. Don’t be silly. Faye was coming to get you and she didn’t come back.”
“Well, we were otherwise indisposed,” said Noah, his nose in the air.
“Where did you go?” asked Jasper. “We’ve been waiting.” He looked at Lucy, then at Noah. “I think this is it. I think we’ve done it.”
Noah grabbed Jasper’s arm. “Wait, have we really done it?”
“I think so,” said Jasper, trying to temper his excitement. “I…yes, I really believe we have.”
“Well, what are we waiting for?” chided Noah, now excited himself. “Chop chop! It’s our baby, Jas. We’re proud papas.”
Jasper grinned and rushed along. Lucy had to run to keep up with Noah and her brother. Faye moved swiftly but maintained the grace her long legs provided and led the way back. Jasper squeezed past Noah and pulled open the door for Faye. It was the gentlemanly thing to do, Jasper knew, and he was pleased by Faye’s nod. Jasper winced as Noah pushed past Faye to be first through the door.
“You’re such a gentleman,” Noah said mockingly, patting Jasper on the head.
Faye rolled her eyes and couldn’t suppress a giggle. Noah was impossible, but he was a funny fellow. She could barely bring herself to admit that he had grown on her.
In the next room, a string was hung from one side to the other. Pieces of paper were clipped to the string and were gently waving as the airship tilted slightly to one side or another.
“Are we surrendering?” asked Noah, looking at the paper. “I feel like I’m standing in a sea of white flags.”
“Very funny, clever boy,” said Faye. “They are drying.”
“Do I smell lemons?” Noah sniffed the air near the paper.
“It’s the citric acid,” said Faye. “We had to use a bit of lemon juice for the citric acid. We’ve treated the paper with potassium bromide and gelatin.”
“Lemon jelly. Delicious.” Noah opened his mouth as if he was going to take a bite of the paper.
Lucy jumped up. “No, Noah!”
Noah raised his eyebrows. “Does Lady Faye want the lemon jelly paper all for herself? Hmm…or, perhaps my powers of deduction are telling me that you are making photographic paper?”
“Yes, it’s true!” shouted Lucy, jumping up and down.
“Careful jumping, Lucy,” said Wallace, adjusting his glasses. “We are in an airship.”
“Now for the main attraction,” said Noah, cracking his knuckles and looking slyly around the room.
Noah moved quickly to the other side of the table, across from Jasper. Jasper was focused on the metallic chess pieces set up on the board. He held a small metal box next to the chessboard. Noah picked up his own box, flipping open the front flap to reveal a multitude of turning gears and levers. With the metal flap open, they could hear the ticks and clicking noises. When Noah jiggled a few levers, several of the pieces on the chessboard seemed to shift to attention. Noah flipped the box closed. He nodded to Jasper. Jasper nodded back.
“Make your move and prepare to lose graciously, my man,” Jasper said, nodding to Noah.
“Lose? Moi?” Noah acted shocked and with a hrumph sat down in his chair. He leaned forward to peruse the board, then leaned back. Instead of moving pieces, he began moving the levers of his clicking box.
Untouched by human hands, the game pieces began their battle. With a single gesture, Jasper moved his queen’s pawn. It whirred around and then moved forward two spaces. Noah favored a spectacular first move. With an impressive display of finger wiggling, he moved his levers and suddenly his king’s knight reared up on its hind legs. On hidden springs and weighted magnets, the knight leapt over its pawn and trotted one step over and stopped.
“Your move, young man,” offered Noah.
Jasper was focused on the board, then his box. He moved some levers and suddenly, his knight reared up and jumped over the row of pawns, settling in front of his king’s pawn.
“Oh, how lovely the horsey is, Jasper,” cried Lucy. “May I kiss him?”
“Not right now, Lucy,” Jasper insisted. “After I win the game, you can give him a big squinch.”
Lucy squealed with pleasure as Noah’s knight got up on his haunches. However, it did not move. Wallace leaned over and dropped a magnet onto the board. Retrieving it, he accidentally knocked over Noah’s knight and the knight began to kick. Noah righted it, but not before getting kicked in the thumb by the tiny horse.
Noah ran his hand through his messy ginger mane and shook his painful thumb. “Can’t say you’ve helped my game, Wallace.”
Miss Brett leaned over. “Do you need me to—”
“No, Miss Brett, I shall live. Onward, opponent,” said Noah as he bowed his head to Jasper.
Back on track, Jasper made another move. Then Noah took one of Jasper’s pawns with his bishop. The bishop kicked the struggling little pawn, which rolled off the board into Jasper’s waiting hand. Move after move, all was going well until Noah’s box sparked. Suddenly, his bishop was trying to catch a fast-moving small mechanical knight, now with a magnetic sphere attached to its head. The knight went crashing into various chess pieces, wreaking unintended havoc on the board.
“Goodness!” cried Miss Brett.
Wallace leaned over again to see what was wrong. Without warning, the knight flew up and attached itself to Wallace’s breast pocket. Pulling the bucking knight away, Wallace tried immediately to disengage it from the powerful magnetic sphere he had buttoned into his pocket. Wallace tried to separate the knight from the magnet, the magnet from the knight, the knight from the other knight, and the knight from his glasses frame…all with no success. The ball was made of the strongest magnetic material Wallace could create. It refused to budge.
Noah grabbed the knight and Wallace held the magnet. They pulled and they crash
ed. Pieces on the board went sprawling. Some came to life—the pawns mostly scurried around aimlessly but the bishops began to nod and walk on the diagonal squares, bumping into and falling over one, then another, while continuing to nod. The knights went on a rampage and the queens began clearing the board of opposing forces.
Noah sighed. “Then again, one might say nothing could help my game. Maybe the bomb was a good thing.”
Lucy shook her head. “Oh, no, a bomb is never a good thing.”
Faye walked over holding her box-camera. She and Jasper had been experimenting with images that could be sent by radio wave. She looked at the chessboard mayhem with disdain. “Ah, I see Noah’s been at the chessboard again.”
Noah picked up a struggling knight. In his other hand, he picked up the buzzing gearbox. “I’ll have you know that we were getting somewhere before Wallace decided to play the bowler and use our chessboard as a cricket pitch.”
Wallace, finally getting the magnet detached from the chess piece and adjusting his glasses, apologized. “I’m sorry, Noah. Jasper, I had no idea that—”
“Don’t worry, Wallace,” insisted Jasper. “Noah’s being silly. Things were going wrong before the magnet. We need to get the pieces to work properly. But look, no broken windows …”
They all looked over at two cracked windows. Jasper blushed. “Aside from the ones we broke last time.”
Then came a loud click as Faye pushed the button on her camera. She quickly turned the crank that moved the roll of celluloid film into position inside the box of the camera. This activated the signal response of the internal radio transmitter and caused a light to flash atop a wire tower next to it on the table. As if in reply, a rather square boxlike machine made of metal and wood made noise like a telegraph machine.
“I simply had to have this on film. I do love to document such success, Noah,” said Faye, walking over to Jasper’s work area, where a small machine whirred. She quickly placed a piece of her special paper into a slot in the machine. “Now, if only it could think for you, too.”
“Well, Lady Faye, I was hoping we could use our little automatons to replace your brain, which seems so utterly exhausted it no longer works.” Noah bowed and took her hand as if to kiss it. Faye pulled her hand away and wiped it on her dress.
The Strange Round Bird: Or the Poet, the King, and the Mysterious Men in Black Page 1