“Mother, are you well?” Faye looked at her mother closely.
Dr. Gwendolyn Vigyanveta wiped her eyes with the corner of her handkerchief. “I…I’m so sorry, Faye,” she said. “I am so sorry… about everything. I know you have suffered. I—”
“Now, none of this,” Faye’s father said. “We are together. Gwendolyn, let us eat now.”
“Of course, Rajesh, you’re right.” She smiled. “We’re together.”
Faye reached over and gave her mother a kiss and a hug.
“Mes chers enfants!” Dr. Isobel Modest was embracing both children at once. Her husband patted his son on his shoulder and then braced himself against the full weight of his tiny daughter jumping into his arms.
Meanwhile, Dr. Clarence Canto-Sagas accidentally stepped on Noah’s foot as he reached to hug him. The two bumped heads.
“Where’s Mother?” Noah asked his father as he managed to disentangle himself from his father’s waistcoat, which had somehow wrapped itself around Noah’s arm.
“She is rehearsing at the opera house.” Noah’s father beamed, somehow getting his wrist wrapped around a string now caught on Noah’s sleeve. “She hasn’t let me come to hear anything. She wants the night to be a total surprise.”
Noah pulled his arm back and found the string attached to a reticule, a small, elegant, beaded drawstring handbag that hung around his father’s wrist.
“Ah, this,” said his father. “It’s…um, your mother’s.” Dr. Canto-Sagas blushed, noticing the lady’s reticule that hung there. “She asked me to keep it for her until after the performance.”
“I’ll go over with you, Father. I’d love to sneak a peek at Mother’s rehearsal,” Noah suggested, but his father just laughed and put an awkward arm around his son’s shoulder.
They were all walking towards a pair of enormous doors that opened to a grand room at the end of the corridor. As they approached, they could smell roasts and exotic herbs. They saw the long table, resplendent with delicacies from end to end. The table was low and there were pillows around instead of chairs.
The children selected pillows and sat down. Immediately, young brothers in black robes came and began pouring mango juice and tea for everyone. The children selected from tamaya, which is Egyptian falafel, with cucumbers, tomatoes, white tangy cheese, and warm soft baladi bread that Noah began stuffing into his mouth by the handful.
“Mon dieu, they do not feed you?” asked Dr. Isobel Modest, looking at the tall lanky Noah who, by then, had food in both hands.
“Mmmm,” Noah reached for another tamaya. “Just saving it for later in my bottomless pit.”
Lucy loved the very sweet tea, which was served in tiny glasses trimmed in gold. She took little sips with her pinky finger sticking out.
Faye discovered aroz bi leban, which was rice pudding, which she knew as kheer in India. It was delicious, with sweet vanilla and cinnamon, though she loved it best with cardamom, the way the cooks used to make for her back in New Delhi.
Wallace found the creamy Umm Ali worth three helpings, and Jasper liked the sweet syrup-soaked basbousa and soft sweet kunafa. Lucy had two helpings for every one that Jasper placed on his plate.
Faye was pleased to find a cinnamon stick sitting on the saucer next to her teacup. She looked up at the brother in black to find that it was Mr. Frilly Apron, as Lucy named the fellow. Faye, much to her own surprise, was touched.
“Thank you,” she said, and she meant it.
Even the grunt, which was his reply, did not diminish the appreciation she felt for that small kindness. What’s wrong with me, she thought to herself. Am I getting soft? Then she looked at Jasper, who had noticed her smile. He was simply beaming at her and her heart felt lighter than it had in a long time. She looked around. Was this the new way life would be?
They were all waiting to see a performance by the wonderful Ariana Canto-Sagas. Together. Faye looked over at Miss Brett, who was deep in conversation with Dr. Banneker. Miss Brett laughed at something Dr. Banneker said and then looked over at Faye. Faye smiled and Miss Brett blushed from ear to ear. Faye saw the blush, but was distracted when Jasper put a hand on Faye’s shoulder.
Suddenly, Faye felt embarrassed. Miss Brett blushing, Faye blushing, Jasper blushing, Wallace…well, Wallace was adjusting his glasses, as always. But the Modest parents were holding hands and smiling at each other. Lucy was dancing in circles around Mr. Frilly Apron while periodically stopping to hug each of the clearly uncomfortable black-clad brothers.
“Are you alright, Faye?” Jasper asked, noting her odd expression and red cheeks. She wanted to laugh and cry and throw her arms around him and run out the door all at once. No, she wasn’t alright. She felt shell-shocked and confused. Jasper mattered to her. She was never good at controlling her urges and she suddenly felt like kissing him.
“I’m fine,” she lied. “Just swallowed funny.” She smiled and, unfortunately, blushed.
“I think we’re going to see our rooms now,” Jasper said. “I’ll see you in a while.” He followed his mother and father away from the table. Lucy was skipping to a tune of her own while reciting the elements of the periodic table.
Jasper was sitting on Noah’s bed as Noah played a few lines from Aida on his violin. Aida was the opera they were going to hear. Wallace had stopped in the doorway to listen. Something in the music made Wallace’s throat catch. It was beautiful. It made him think of his mother. He wished she could have been there, right then. He thought of her kindness, her gentle voice, her soothing smile.
Suddenly, it was Miss Brett whom he saw. Yes, the two of them, Miss Brett and his mother, were together in his mind, somehow. They were, after all, the two women he loved most in the world.
“Leave your shoes outside your rooms, boys,” Dr. Banneker said, leaving his very large shoes in the hallway. “They’ll polish them for us before we set off to the opera house tonight. They’ve left us each a pair of shib shib, what they call slippers.”
Dr. Banneker was wearing elegant green and gold shib shib that were the size of a pair of small boats. He was holding a smaller version for Wallace, who had left his shoes in the bedroom he was to share with his father. The shib shib were silk on the outside, with the softest plush cotton on the inside. Noah put down his violin and slipped his bare feet into his shib shib. He picked up his right shoe and began to hunt around, looking under the bed and under the clothes he had piled on the floor. Noah was sure his left shoe was somewhere in his room.
“Yes, they’re a lovely shade of pink,” Jasper was saying to Lucy, who could not stop looking at, touching, taking off, and putting on her pink silk slippers.
“I’ve never had shib shib before,” she swooned. “I’ve had simple slippers or warm wooly ones for chilliness but never, ever, ever such lovely fairy princess slippers…They are fairy princess slippers, aren’t they, Jasper?”
“Yes, indeed, they are,” said Jasper, who saw a brother in black coming down the hall. He meant to ask him if there was tea but, suddenly, the brother disappeared.
“Lucy, did you see that?” Jasper blinked.
“See what?” Lucy clearly had not.
“Nothing,” Jasper said, figuring he must have been imagining things.
But then, once again, a brother appeared. Jasper turned to Lucy. “Where did he come from? He wasn’t there a moment ago,” he said.
“Who?” asked Lucy, twirling around to see what Jasper was talking about.
No one was there. “I thought I saw a brother in black,” he said.
“You mean him?” asked Lucy, pointing to the brother, who was, once again, standing in the hallway.
“Where did you come from?” asked Jasper in a squeaky voice meant to hide his surprise.
“Yes,” said the brother, offering Lucy a teacake that she gladly took and, pinky extended, shoved whole into her mouth.
“Are there ghosts here?” asked Faye, who was nearly running down the hall. She was wearing gold silk slippers and a pale pink dr
essing gown. “I think my mind is playing tricks on me.”
“Are there brothers in black disappearing and appearing?” Jasper was relieved that Faye was seeing them, too.
“Yes!” Faye seemed as pleased as Jasper. “In the hallway by my room, where there are no other passages or doors or even windows. The hall was empty, then there was a brother, then I blinked and he disappeared.”
It wasn’t long before the children discovered how the brothers came and went. Secret passages. The children were able to find very few of the innumerable secret passageways that ran through and under and around the castle. There was a passage that ran from behind the tapestry in the entry and under the stairs and came out next to the window in the side reception area.
Another required the turning of a knob at the base of the fireplace mantel in the great hall. This one led both to a passage going up and to a passage going down. The lower passage came out in the gardens behind the bushy orange and fuchsia Bougainvillea. The upper passage seemed to be in disuse and was too covered in cobwebs for anyone to explore.
There was another passage in the pantry that led back through the walls of the corridor. There was an exit into the hallways through the back of a wooden panel. These rooms, the children assumed, must be offices or private rooms for the brothers. The passage must be a quick way for busy brothers to get from the kitchen with trays of tea.
It was during their explorations that the children heard it.
“It’s the brothers chanting,” said Jasper.
“Like they did on the ship to Solemano,” said Wallace.
Lucy cupped her ear and put a finger to her lips. She nodded and said, “It’s the same chant.”
Everyone, of course, knew she was right since she could remember absolutely everything. One time, the mysterious men in black had stood together on the ship deck and chanted. Now, here in the castle, the brothers in black were chanting again.
“Ferħ huwa għal dawk li jaħdmu għal paċi! Ferħ huwa għal dawk li huma puri fil-qalb. Ferħ huwa għal dawk li huma veri li Suleiman. Xogħol għal dawk li huma għandhom jipproteġu d-dinja minn el Magnau el Magna mid-dinja. U dan se jġib paċi. Il-poeta ser ikollok paċi,” came the chant of the brothers. “D-dinja minn el Magnau Il Magna mid-dinja,” said one deep voice.
“D-dinja minn el Magnau Il Magna mid-dinja,” came a chorus of voices.
“What in the name of raspberry soufflé is that?” said Noah.
“I wonder what Il Magna is,” said Lucy, distracted by the thought of raspberry soufflé.
“You are just in time, children.” Dr. Canto-Sagas was suddenly beside them.
“We didn’t mean to bother anyone so we were spying quietly,” Lucy said.
“No need to feel bad, Lucy,” said Dr. Canto-Sagas. “I am glad to see you have gotten to see the preamble to the ceremony.”
“The ceremony?” asked Noah.
“Yes, son,” said Dr. Canto-Sagas, who had already begun to walk down the hall. The children were racing to keep up with him. “But first we must get dressed.”
They arrived in an ante-chamber, a small room at the entrance of the great hall. It was filled with parents donning robes of black. Dr. Banneker was helping Miss Brett into her robes. “It is a very special ceremony. We must honor the brothers and follow the rules. It is the time of the choosing and we must attend. It is Şapka töreni.”
“The what?” asked Faye, putting her arms through the robes her father held out for her.
“Şapka töreni. It is Turkish and means the ceremony of the hat. It is the moment when an acolyte, a student brother, becomes a true brother in black. He must choose the hat which he shall defend.” Dr. Banneker was speaking to Miss Brett. They smiled at one another. Wallace saw this and it made his heart leap. He was so glad to see they had become friends.
“Under which hat he shall defend?” asked Faye. “Defend what?”
“Shall defend Il Magna?” asked Lucy.
Gwendolyn Vigyanveta gasped. The parents looked quickly from the children to Dr. Banneker.
“Well, um, I don’t know if…I can’t see how…I…” Now Dr. Banneker looked at the other parents.
“Perhaps that’s for later,” said Dr. Tobias Modest. “Let us say… under which he shall defend Il Magna and all of us upon whom the weight rests.” Dr. Modest looked at the others to be sure he had said the right thing.
Dr. Gwendolyn Vigyanveta was still alarmed. “But how on earth do you know of Il Magna?”
“Let us leave that, my dearest,” said her husband. Faye tried to catch their eyes but they were not looking at her. Dr. Rajesh Vigyanveta nodded at the brother who had entered. “We are ready, Brother.”
Without further explanation, the brother nodded and swept out of the room and into the hall.
CHAPTER THREE
THROWING IN THE HAT
OR
THE KNIGHTS IN BLACK SHARE A TUNE
The hall was a large room with wooden benches around the edge. The elder brothers and acolytes were all standing together in the center, silent, dressed in long black robes. There was something under each seat in the front row. At either side was a young brother. They each held two flags, one of Malta and one with the turgha of Suleiman.
Faye thought about the total strangeness of the whole ceremony. The brothers were a secret organization. That said, the Young Inventors Guild was something of a secret organization, too. She and the others still did not know the real story of the mysterious men in black, or much about the story of the first Young Inventors Guild members, either.
The somber yet mellifluous voice of the mysterious men in black filled the room. They began to sing, though it was more of a chant, and it resonated in waves through the walls.
“Ferħ huwa għal dawk li jaħdmu għal paċi! Ferħ huwa għal dawk li huma puri fil-qalb. Ferħ huwa għal dawk li huma veri li Suleiman. Xogħol għal dawk li huma għandhom jipproteġu d-dinja minn el Magnau el Magna mid-dinja. U dan se jġib paċi. Il-poeta ser ikollok paċI,” they chanted.
Noah looked around for someone to explain. All the parents were staring straight forward.
“Ferħ huwa għal dawk li jaħdmu għal paċi!” shouted a small man. His back faced the audience.
“Ferħ huwa għal dawk li huma puri fil-qalb,” responded one young robed brother. He stood in front of a small robed figure whose face was shadowed by his hood. The young brother had a trim beard and rather elegant moustache. It reminded Jasper of someone, but he could not place it.
“It must be him,” said Lucy in a whisper. Her eyes were wide and she was on the edge of her seat.
“Ferħ huwa għal dawk li huma veri li Suleiman,” the brothers all chanted together.
“They said ‘Suleiman,’” Jasper whispered to Faye.
“They said, ‘Joy is for those who work for peace! Joy is for those who are pure in heart. Joy is for those who are true to Suleiman,’” said Lucy. “Now shush so I can hear the ceremony.”
“How did you—”
“Shush, Jasper,” Lucy hissed.
“Xogħol għal dawk li huma għandhom jipproteġu d—” the small man called out.
“What does that mean?” asked Jasper.
“He said, ‘Work for those who are to protect the world from—’” said Lucy in a hushed voice.
“Dinja minn el Magnau El Magna mid-dinja,” the brothers responded.
“El Magnau, el magna from the world,” the little girl added.
“Dinja minn el Magnau El Magna mid-dinja,” said the small man, now standing in front of the young brother.
“Dinja minn el Magnau El Magna mid-dinja,” repeated the young brother.
“U dan se jġib paċI,” said the small man.
“And it will bring peace,’” translated Lucy, softly.
The brothers in the room repeated what the small man had said and the young brother repeated again.
“Il-poeta ser ikollok paċI.” The small man raised a goblet in the air. The brothers repeated the line and a
ll raised bent arms, then placed their hands on their chests.
“What did they say?” asked Jasper, Faye leaning close to hear as well.
“Well, it is very odd,” said Lucy. “The small robed leading brother said, ‘The poet will have peace.’ At least, that’s what it sounded like.”
“What poet?” asked Wallace.
“The one who needs to have peace, silly,” said Lucy.
“Since when do you speak Latin?” asked Faye.
“It isn’t Latin,” said Lucy. Then, with a finger to her lips, she quieted Faye’s next question: “What language was it?” As the ceremony became quite subdued, Faye accepted Lucy’s silence.
A brother came from the ranks and stood beside the small man. He carried a black velvet cloth. It was bulky, like a pile of poorly folded blankets.
“Ridt tagħżel, brother?” asked the small man.
“He’s asking if the brother has chosen,” said Lucy.
“I għażlu l-kappell taħt liema I għandhom iservu, kaptan ta aħwa,” said the brother, bowing his head to the small man.
Lucy tilted her head. “I’m not sure what is happening. The brother is serving under a hat and he called the small man ‘Captain,’ I think.”
“The voice of the small man sounds familiar,” Miss Brett whispered to Dr. Banneker. But he was entranced by the ceremony and didn’t hear her. Miss Brett assumed the little man must have been one of the brothers in black, perhaps from Solemano.
The young brother dropped his robe and stood, naked as a baby, in front of the room. Faye’s jaw dropped. Miss Brett gasped. Lucy stifled a giggle, and both Dr. Isobel Modest and Dr. Gwendolyn Vigyanveta closed their eyes.
The small man, unfazed, immediately dressed the naked brother in a black-lace chemise and embroidered tunic. The young no-longer-naked-now-chemise-wearing brother put on a pair of long stockings. He was handed a pair of breeches that sported a row of buttons down the side and put them on as well. Then the small man placed a large feathered hat upon the young brother. As for his feet, the brother slipped into a pair of soft leather boots. In his belt, the brother placed a beautiful sword.
The Strange Round Bird: Or the Poet, the King, and the Mysterious Men in Black Page 3