by Tad Williams
Lucinda sighed. It was like having a young dog around-sniffing, scratching, digging, chewing, always into something. “What’s what?”
“That.” He pointed at the ceiling above her dresser. “That square up there. Looks like a trap door or something.”
“Yeah, well, check it out tomorrow, Dora the Explorer. I’m tired.”
“No, really.” He sprang up and pulled out a couple of the dresser drawers. “Here, help me-keep this from tipping over… ”
“Tyler, no!” But it was useless, of course-he was already clambering up the dresser, making it sway ominously. She hurried forward just in time, wincing as she heard the wooden drawers creaking and protesting under his weight. When he reached the top of the dresser Tyler reached up and poked the rectangular ceiling panel, then poked it again. It gave a little.
“I knew it!”
“Knew what? That there was a heating duct up there?” But Lucinda was a little intrigued in spite of herself. Tyler pushed the wooden panel up and out of the way, exposing darkness. “Eew,” she said. “Probably full of spiders.”
“Give me your flashlight, Luce.”
“Where’s yours?”
“I dropped it when I was climbing on the roof.”
Lucinda sighed. “Good going.” She found the dopey pink flashlight Mom had given her and passed it up to Tyler. He gripped it in his teeth, then pulled himself up into the space above until he could rest his upper body on the edge and only his legs dangled down. “What do you see?” she asked. “Don’t let any spiders crawl down or I won’t be able to sleep in here.”
His voice was muffled. “Yeah, that makes sense. You’re on a farm with dragons as big as a jet plane and you’re worried about ordinary house spiders?”
“Spiders are creepier than dragons. What’s up there?”
“Mostly heating pipes or something… and insulation. Old empty boxes.” He sounded disappointed as he rattled things around.
“Don’t make so much noise!” she hissed, up into the dry, old-smelling air above her head.
Tyler’s face appeared in the opening. “It’s a big space, Luce. An attic.” He vanished, returned to his inspection. A long moment passed. “Wow. Actually, there’s a lot of stuff stacked right behind that heating pipe thing over there… ”
Then he fell silent. Lucinda listened for long moments, heart pounding. He was doing a good job of being quiet-too good. “Tyler?” she called.
“I found a cool-looking box up here, Luce. It’s like wood, and it’s got… labels all over it.”
“What do you mean, labels?”
“You know, like someone sent if from far away. Come stand under the hole and help me get it down.”
Despite her very strong desire not to handle anything that might have spider webs on it, Lucinda got on a chair and reached up, squinting her eyes in case anything jumped off at her. The box, when Tyler slid it down, was smaller and less heavy than she’d expected, about the size of an overnight bag, made out of pale, thick wood with rusted metal corners; Lucinda just managed to avoid getting scratched by the metal as she took it. Tyler jumped down.
“What is it?” There were labels all over it, like someone sent it from far away. The labels were in English, but the names all looked very exotic-the sender seemed to be someone named Koto. Lucinda couldn’t even guess what kind of name that was. “Wow-look at this label,” Tyler said. “This box came from Madagascar!” He pulled his knife out of his pocket. “Swiss Army to the rescue!” He began hacking through the thin metal bands that held the box closed.
“Don’t cut yourself,” she said, but Tyler ignored her; a few moments later he was prying up the lid of the small crate. When it popped free, a smell rolled out like nothing Lucinda had ever smelled before, dusty and dark and rotten-sweet, confirming every prejudice she had against this venture.
“ Oohh, gross!” She gasped. “What is that? Don’t touch it, Tyler!”
That was something shriveled and possessed of little legs folded up against a long, dried-out body. Tyler lifted it off the top of the nested paper. “Awesome. It’s a lizard!”
“Yecch. It’s lizard jerky, is what it is.”
Tyler actually waved it in her face, like he was four years old.
“ Stop!”
Luckily the lizard had been dead and dried long enough that it had almost no smell, but Lucinda still didn’t want to touch it. She watched as Tyler set it aside and began digging through the scrunched-up paper. “The rest of looks like it’s all plants,” he said, holding up some kind of bulb with little bits of dry soil still clinging to its tiny roots. “And seeds in glass jars-this one has a note on it that says, ‘Unknown Sarracenia… ’ Tyler was digging busily in the paper now, and suddenly she flashed back to him as a very small kid, seeing in her mind’s eye the way he used to excavate in the just-opened cereal box for a free toy, and how crazy that used to make their mother: ‘Pour it out in a bowl, for God’s sake. Don’t stick your dirty hands in there!’
Tyler tossed something at Lucinda-a bundle of letters, held together with an old rubber band that broke into pieces as she grabbed for the letters. They scattered all over the floor.
“Clumsy,” said Tyler, which made Lucinda fume. She picked one up and was startled by what was written on it.
“ ‘Doctor Grace Goldring! ’ ” she said. “Wow – did you know Gideon’s wife Grace was a doctor?”
Tyler shook his head. “But this stuff is mostly seeds,” he said, disappointed. “Some powdery, mushroomy stuff, and a couple of bugs in, like, test tubes… ”
“So she was a biologist… ” said Lucinda, impressed. “A scientist.”
Tyler stopped abruptly, his hand sunk deep in the packing materials, and for moment Lucinda was scared that the poisonous spider she’d been worrying about all along had bitten him. Then she heard it too-a key turning in the door of her room.
Lucinda looked at Tyler, who stared back at her, wide-eyed. “Just a minute!” Lucinda shouted. “Don’t come in!”
Tyler was shoving everything he’d pulled out back into the wooden crate. Lucinda frantically tried to gather up the letters, dropping several in her haste, but there was no time: the door banged open.
Mrs. Needle stood in the doorway, slender as a pointing finger. Her eyes widened when she saw the crate and its contents on the floor, but her face otherwise remained an emotionless mask. “I might have known. The first day and already you two are causing trouble.” She called over her shoulder, “Colin!”
Her son walked in. The boy who had just endured a horrid dragon-snot burn looked fine now, just as his mother had claimed. He gave Lucinda a look as he walked into the bedroom that she could have sworn was pure embarrassment.
“You locked us in!” Tyler said accusingly.
“And you not only got out, you made what must have been a very dangerous excursion to get here,” snapped Mrs. Needle. “What did you do, child, climb out the window? Do you know how foolish that is?” She stared down at the crate. “And what is this?” She looked up to the open panel in the ceiling. “Incorrigible. A few hours back in the house and you are already burglarizing the place, rifling through things that don’t belong to you… ” She shook her head. “Colin, gather this all up and carry it to my office.”
He already had it in his hands. “The lizard too?” he said, sounding weary.
“Yes, of course the lizard-goodness only knows what kind of important scientific specimen it might be.” Mrs. Needle sighed. “As for you two, I am sure Gideon will have something to say to you both in the morning. Tyler, back to your room.”
“You’re not my mom,” he said quietly, but for once that was as much resistance as her brother was willing to offer. Colin led him out.
Great, Lucinda thought as Mrs. Needle locked the door behind her. She threw herself back on the bed, miserable. She wanted to pound her heels on the floor like an angry toddler. Here less than a day and we’re in trouble again.
Chapter 5
&nb
sp; Not Invited
Colin had been very careful all year to stay away from the dragons. What happened in the Sick Barn proved him right, although it had hurt too much for him to enjoy his moral victory. Yes, his fears were now confirmed: dragons remembered. The beasts had too much freedom, that was the problem. Meseret should be muzzled like a dangerous dog, and her mate, Alamu, shouldn’t be flying around the huge property unsupervised. It was all just another example of why someone sensible-someone like Colin himself-should be in charge.
As he was thinking these and other sour thoughts over breakfast, his mother appeared in the kitchen doorway. “Colin, go to Lucinda Jenkins’ room and make certain there is nothing left in that crawlspace-I cannot trust those children to tell me. If you find anything else, bring it straight to me. Straight to me.”
Colin nodded and went without complaining, an act he occasionally put on, like an old t-shirt he could pull over his head and later just drop on the floor. It was easier and more sensible than arguing, since he had never won an argument with his mother and doubted he ever would.
Lucinda’s room was empty of Jenkins kids, which was a relief. After an awkward climb onto the dresser and up into the crawlspace yielded no further discoveries, he trudged back down to his mother’s office to tell her the news. She didn’t seem surprised. She was already carefully unpacking the shipping crate, setting out its contents on her big table in neat rows of jars, tubes and crumpled foreign newspapers, and making notes on a lined pad.
“That’s fine, dear. Run along and help the others now-I’m sure Gideon can find something for you to do. I’ll be busy until lunchtime but I’ll see you then.”
“I thought maybe I could work with you-help you sort through this stuff… ”
“Oh, no, Colin. Thank you, but you’d just be in the way.” She hadn’t even looked up.
He kicked the banister as he went down the stairs and hurt his toe. Why was it every time that Tyler and Lucinda Jenkins showed up, things immediately went bad for Colin Needle?
Blazing early-morning light filled the open front door, throwing much else of the entry hall into darkness. A little hot, fresh air blew in, disturbing the dust motes as they drifted in the light.
Gideon was up and wearing his going-out clothes, which meant he’d pulled a pair of pants over his pajamas. His white hair looked like he’d just pulled a pair of pants over that as well-it stuck up like wispy grass. The master of Ordinary Farm also had the hearty, pleased-with-himself air that Colin disliked-what he thought of as Gideon’s “great man” personality, when he acted as if everything he said and did was being noted by historians. What the old man was really like, Colin thought, was the movie version of the Wizard of Oz-a humbug, full of speeches and hot air.
But when Gideon abruptly turned to Colin his scowling face looked more like Oz the Great and Terrible. “What’s this I hear about you and your mother locking Tyler and Lucinda into their rooms?”
Surprised, Colin swallowed hard. “Mother wanted to keep them out of trouble, with all the changes to the property and everything. Especially Tyler.” He couldn’t hold Gideon’s sharp stare. “It wasn’t my idea.”
“I think you and your mother sometimes forget who owns this farm,” the old man said sternly. “You can tell her there will be no more locking anyone in. As far as the changes to the property, we’re going on a little tour right now.”
Colin frowned. He hated the idea of spending time with Tyler Jenkins, who seemed to be even more obnoxious than last summer if such a thing was possible. Lucinda wasn’t so bad-in fact, Colin had been almost looking forward to seeing her-but he really didn’t want Gideon to think he was going to spend the summer babysitting these two. “I’m supposed to be working in the library, Gideon… ”
“The library?” Tyler Jenkins had just appeared on the stairs. “Why?”
“He’s doing some work for me.” Gideon’s hand stole up as if it had a mind of his own, reaching toward the locket he wore hidden under his pajama shirt-his wife’s locket that Tyler Jenkins had brought back to him, which Colin knew was the whole reason the old man had sent Colin to the library. “And now that we’re talking about it, Master Needle, I haven’t seen any results considering all the time you spend over there instead of doing your regular work.” The old man shook his head. “I’m losing my patience, lad.”
“That’s not fair…!” Colin felt his cheeks get hot and bit back the rest of his angry reply. “I’m doing my best, Gideon. The books are all out of order… ”
“What’s Colin doing in the library?” Tyler was not going to let it go.
“That’s none of your business!” Colin said. “You’ve only been here a day…!”
“Now, let’s have no more of this silly fighting,” Gideon said, growing cheerful again as other people argued. “Young Colin’s just doing some research for me. You’ll hear about it later. Right now we have a tour to take!”
“Can we see the unicorns?” Lucinda asked. “And Meseret and Desta again?”
Gideon laughed. “Maybe, if there’s time. Come along, everyone. I want to show you some of the features we’ve added since last summer-you might call it the new, improved Ordinary Farm!”
“But Gideon, what about my work?” Colin asked.
The master of the house looked at him without much kindness. “You might as well get to it, lad. I wasn’t inviting you to join us.”
He led them out, leaving Colin Needle alone in the entry hall with his face red, smarting like someone had slapped him.
Chapter 6
A Dozen Orange Eyes
After everything that had happened the night before, Tyler thought it was wonderful to be out of the house, away from the Needles, and rolling across the farm with Uncle Gideon and Mr. Walkwell. They picked up Haneb outside the Sick Barn. The shy little animal-keeper nodded to the children and might even have said hello, but he spoke very quietly as always, keeping his head turned away to hide the scars on his face.
They headed out toward the pasture lands, the horse cart rattling up and down the dirt roads and through the golden hills. Beyond the hills the valley was fenced by mountains, dark purple shadows against the sky in every direction Tyler looked. Even the air smelled different here in Standard Valley, wild as ocean air, full of mysteries.
As Lucinda had requested, their first stop was the unicorn pasture, where they found Ragnar already pouring feed into a huge trough. He summoned the animals with three loud whistles and they appeared over the rise less than a minute later, a spiky, thunderous cloud of dust and horns. Tyler, Lucinda, and sat watching from the cart while the Norseman, Mr. Walkwell and Haneb worked with the unicorns. A foal was corralled and given a shot of antibiotics. Several others had their delicate hooves inspected, cleaned, and trimmed. Shy, scarred Haneb gently felt the stomach of one skittish, expectant mother.
“Her time coming soon,” he announced.
“Well, that’s something to look forward to!” said Gideon. He settled back against the seat. “Ah. What a fine day. This is heavenly!”
Lucinda said, “Can we go see the dragons next?”
He frowned. “I told you, we’ll see. First, we truly do have to talk about security, if only for your safety. You’ve seen how hard we’ve been working to improve things since you were last here. Many things have changed.”
“How many fences are there now?” Tyler asked. “And are all of them, like, electrical?”
“There are three,” Gideon said. “One around the very outside of the property, one around the main buildings, and one just around the house itself.”
“How come so many?” What Tyler really wanted to see was what would happen if someone tried to climb over one, but he felt sadly sure that wouldn’t be part of any demonstration.
“It will be easier to explain once you see the rest of our precautions,” Gideon told them, his good spirits returning. “And it was all possible because of that money Stillman left here last year! Half a million! Even if he’s a billionaire,
I bet that still hurt!” The old man let out a sudden cackle. “I’ll bet he’s kicking himself. He tried to ruin me, but it only made me stronger!”
“Has he tried to do anything else since then?” said Tyler.
“He never stopped,” his great-uncle growled. “He seems to have a new plan every week. Right now he’s trying to buy all the properties along the border of Ordinary Farm-throwing money at my neighbors like the soulless pig that he truly is. He wants to surround me! Do you wonder I’m trying to protect the farm?”
As they the wagon creaked and bumped back toward the center of the property, where they could again see the jumbled silhouette of the farmhouse, Tyler found himself coming back again and again to Uncle Gideon and Colin Needle. What was Colin doing for the old man in the library?
It hit him just as they made their way past a row of huts that might once have been workers’ cabins.
The necklace, he thought- he’s wearing Grace’s necklace. And where did I tell him I found it? The library-which was partly true. He had not told his great-uncle the rest of the story, how he had been given the locket by a woman Tyler was certain had to be Grace Goldring herself, a woman lost in a strange, backward version of Ordinary Farm on the far side of a magical washstand mirror Tyler and Lucinda had found in a little room off the library. Gideon’s got Colin trying to figure out how Grace’s necklace got into the library. Tyler doubted Colin would ever guess what had really happened, but knowing that the pale, unpleasant boy had been given free run of the library bothered Tyler. A lot.
Gideon cleared his throat as they reached a little wooden bridge over the stream that ran through this part of the property, only a few hundred yards from the house itself. “Now,” he said, pointing at the water, “I know you’ve seen this before, but do you know what it’s called? It’s Kumish Creek-that’s an Indian name. ‘Course, the creek recedes a bit as the summer goes on, but even in mid-August it’s more than wide and deep enough for a man to go down the middle in a canoe or even swim it. It runs all the way from the hills outside of the valley almost to our farmhouse door.’