Chase Tinker & The House of Magic

by Malia Ann Haberman

  It was somewhat different than regular teleporting. Chase still felt as if he'd left his hair behind, but this was like his molecules flew apart, zoomed around, and whipped back together. One heart-stopping moment later, he was crouched on the floor in his bedroom.

  "Chase!" yelled a surprised voice. "Where did you come from?"

  He clambered to his feet. "Aunt Clair! What are you doing here?"

  "I—I was looking for you and the other kids."

  "Why are you holding my shirt?"

  She glanced down at the t-shirt clutched in her hands. "Well…it looked so untidy. I thought I'd pick up a little. Sorry if I intruded," she mumbled. She ducked her head and ran her hand through her wavy, dark hair.

  "Um, that's okay, you don't have to do that," he said, his face turning bright-red. Grabbing his shirt, he saw the mess was only on his side of the room. Andy's was spotless, as usual. He kicked some things under the bed. "I, uh, planned on cleaning later." He didn't want her to think he was a major slob.

  "Where are the other kids?" asked Clair, pretending not to notice his special way of cleaning.

  "In the library. We're messing around up there. It's a cool room."

  "That's right, I remember." Clair smiled. "I haven't been up there in ages. I loved the treehouse. You must have been in the pirate ship."

  "We're trying out those treasure chests, but it doesn't look like it's a round trip."

  She laughed. "No, but it was great for getting to the kitchen quicker if you were late for dinner. They used to be strewn about the house because they only teleport you around inside. Of course, Ben never cared much for that. He loved being outside fishing or catching bugs or climbing trees."

  Chase looked away as he scuffed his toe on the floor. He used to enjoy hearing stuff about his dad, but lately, he had a hard time talking about him. In fact, a number of times Chase had to stop himself from thinking that the way things were going, they'd probably never see Benjamin again.

  "Anyway," she said, heading out the door, "I'll let you get back to what you were doing."

  "Wait! Why were you looking for us?"

  "It doesn't matter," answered Clair, waving her hand. "I just wanted to see what you were up to, is all. Now that I'm feeling better, I'm a little bored. I might have to take up knitting."

  He stared guiltily at the floor as she wandered away. Come to think of it, they had been ignoring her lately now that she was no longer sick. Maybe they should take time to plan some sort of family excursion for tomorrow. I'll talk it over with the others, he thought as he ran from the room and back to the library.

  When he arrived, James was lounging in a chair by the fireplace and thumbing through a book. When he saw Chase, he tossed it aside and jumped to his feet. "Good, you're back. I've been thinking—"

  He was interrupted by Andy, Persephone and Janie thudding across the floor. Andy's pockets rattled with jelly beans.

  "—anyway," he continued, glaring at them, "I think a place we need to search is the old man's room."

  "You mean Grandfather's room?" said Janie as she skidded to a stop next to Chase. "You have to be kidding! We can't search for anything in there."

  "Have you ever even seen it?" asked Chase.

  She shook her head.

  "Do you at least know where it is?" asked James.

  "Maybe…" she said, putting the squirmy Maxwell on the floor so he could run around and sniff things.

  Chase smiled to himself when the little animal snapped and hissed at James on the way by. Knowing Maxwell didn't care for James any more than he did made Chase think that maybe the ferret wasn't so bad, after all.

  "Persephone's lived here her whole life," said Andy, turning to her. "Do you know where it is?"

  She shook her head. "Sounds like Janie knows more than I do on this one."

  Janie crossed her arms. "We can't go there. I won't be a part of this," she said adamantly. "It would be going way too far."

  "It does make sense, Janie," said Chase. "The safest place to hide a secret passage would be in the Keeper's bedroom."

  "It's worth a shot," said James.

  "You guys are crazy!" cried Janie. "We don't even know for sure if those rooms exist. And what if we're caught? What do you think would happen? Grandfather would kill us, that's what would happen!"

  "Maybe Janie's right," said Andy as he chewed on a jelly bean. "And when would we be able to do it?"

  "We'll wait until he's out of the house," said Chase.

  "I know when he'll be gone," piped in Persephone, blushing when their eyes instantly swiveled to her. "I—I was in the kitchen a bit ago when Mr. Hiram and my mom were talking about taking Clair to dinner. In Hawaii. This evening."

  "What time?" asked James, his eyes lighting up.

  "They were planning on leaving at nine o'clock because Hawaii is three hours behind us."

  "Perfect."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Secret Rooms

  Janie was doing her best to lead them to where she thought Grandfather's room was located.

  Chase looked at his watch. "How long do you think we have?"

  "At least a couple hours, I would guess," said Persephone.

  "I hope we find it way before those guys get home," said Andy.

  "Don't sweat it," said James. "We'll be in and out of there with time to spare."

  Thirty-six minutes, nine wrong turns, and one secret door later, they arrived at the bottom of an ivory-colored marble staircase. This led to a wide landing and a set of cherry-wood doors.

  But when they tried climbing the stairs, they kept walking in the same exact spot.

  "Why isn't this working?" asked Chase. He crossed his arms and glared at the steps.

  "Maybe it means we're not supposed to do this," piped in Andy.

  Everyone just ignored him.

  "I'll try running up them." Chase leaped onto the stairs and pumped his legs as fast as possible, but it didn't take long for him to realize he was going absolutely nowhere. "This'll never work," he said as he jumped to the floor.

  "We just have to figure out the enchantment," said Janie. She crossed her arms and frowned at the staircase. Chase thought she looked like she was solving some kind of terrible, complicated math problem in her head.

  "You have to move backward to go forward," she murmured finally.

  "What?" exclaimed James. "You're not making any sense."

  "It means we have to walk up the stairs backwards." She turned and, glancing over her shoulder, started up the stairs with her back to the doors, easily reaching the top. The rest of the kids tromped up right after her.

  "How the heck did you figure that out?" asked James when they were all at the top.

  She shrugged. "I read a lot."

  Chase patted her shoulder. "And, because she's our Know-it-all-Janie," he said, grinning proudly at her.

  "Whatever. This house is way too weird," said James, scowling darkly.

  "It certainly makes life interesting," said Janie. She smiled back at Chase as she took a deep breath, grasped the brass handles and shoved open the doors.

  The first thing to catch Chase's eye was the enormous, round window showing a panoramic view of the dark-blue water, snow-peaked mountains and the city of Seattle; the second, a shining, gold chest sitting at the foot of a huge, curtained, four-poster bed, which was so high it needed several stairs to get into it. Followed by the others, he stepped onto the plush carpet and slowly entered the spacious room with its antique furnishings and cozy fireplace.

  James headed straight to the chest and tugged on the lid. "It's locked," he said in annoyance. "And after what happened before, breaking into it isn't an option."

  "We better go then," said Janie, her eyes darting around the room. "Now that we're here trespassing, I'm having second thoughts." She turned to leave.

  "Wait a second, don't go yet," said Chase. He pulled the pirate ship key from his pocket. "I still have the key to the other treasure chests. Maybe it'll work in this o
ne."

  James grabbed the key and crammed it into the lock. When turned, it gave a loud, satisfying click. "Yes!" he said, throwing back the lid.

  They crowded around the chest and gazed down into it. And down, and down, and down into total darkness.

  "It sure looks dark and creepy," said Andy. "Where do you suppose it leads?"

  "I'll know in a minute," said James. Before anyone was able to stop him, he jumped into the chest and vanished.

  "How could he do that?" exclaimed Persephone. "He has no idea what's down there."

  "Maybe it goes clear through the whole planet!" said Andy.

  "It does look deep," said Janie, a slight quaver in her voice. They stood in silence for several minutes, unsure of what to do.

  "Hey up there! Can anybody hear me?" called a far-off voice.

  "James! How does it look down there?" yelled Janie, her voice echoing into the blackness.

  "Come on down and see for yourselves! But watch that first step, it's wild!"

  "He made it okay," said Janie, twisting her fingers together. "Um…I guess I'll go next."

  "Are you sure?" asked Chase.

  "Yeah…yeah, no problem. It's a piece of cake." Climbing over the side, she sat stiffly in the corner, clinging to the edges. "See you guys at the bottom." She gulped. "I hope." And she vanished into the darkness.

  "I suppose I'll go now," said Persephone while swinging her legs cautiously over the side. Her knuckles were white as she gripped the lid.

  "We'll be right behind you," Chase assured her.

  After she was gone, Chase turned to Andy. "After you?"

  Looking too frightened to speak, Andy nodded and clambered onto the edge of the chest. Perched on the side like a large, wide-eyed owl, he gulped, then let go.

  Chase paused for several moments. Was this one of those "damn the consequences" moments Persephone had accused him of causing? He took a deep breath. Now wasn't a good time to dwell on that. Plucking the key from the lock, he shoved it into his pocket and stepped over the edge.

  It was a good thing he wasn't afraid of heights, or else he'd be freaking out at the thought of dropping into total darkness. But, at least it wasn't a fast drop, and as he drifted closer to the bottom it became lighter until he landed on a softly-glowing floor.

  "Andy? Janie?"

  "We're in here," answered Andy as his head poked from a doorway. "We found one, Chase. A secret fighting power room."

  He entered the room right as a flashing, blue lightning bolt slammed into the wall next to him. The wood sizzled and smoked. He jumped back. "Hey, watch it!"

  "Sorry, Cuz," James called from across the room, snickering. "Thought I'd try out the goods."

  "Try them on something else!" snarled Chase.

  "Chase, are you okay?" asked Janie, running to his side.

  "Yeah! But it sure didn't take him long to figure out the room's power."

  "I know," she whispered, glancing at James. "He's been shooting lightning bolts out of his eyes."

  "Out of his eyes? Wow!" He looked at the wallpaper. Sure enough, the pictures showed exactly that. He was impressed in spite of his near-zap experience. Looking around, he saw practice targets everywhere. "I hope he's been firing them at the targets and not you guys."

  "Yeah, but he does have a tendency to get a little carried away."

  "You think?" said Chase, shaking his head.

  "Hey, come on! Let's go find some other rooms," said James. He dashed out the door.

  The other kids followed somewhat reluctantly.

  "He's worse than a little kid on Christmas morning," growled Andy.

  By the time they reached the next room, James had already figured out how to shoot anything he wanted from his fingertips.

  "Ropes!"

  Long, golden ropes flew at Chase and Andy and snaked around them until they were wrapped together tighter than two butterflies in the same cocoon.

  James laughed. "How cool is this!" he said, a maniacal gleam in his eyes.

  "James!" yelled Andy. "We've had enough! Let us go."

  Chase glared at his cousin. Two can play at this game, he thought. Twisting his hand, he pointed his finger at James and whispered, "Sticky tape!" The tape blasted across the room. James ducked as it whizzed over his head and smacked into the wall.

  "Ha! You missed me!"

  "Crap! More tape!" Several more pieces shot from Chase's finger. One landed with a splat right on James's chuckling mouth, the others wrapped snugly around his ankles.

  "Mmmm! Mm! Mmm!" was all James was capable of saying before he crashed to the floor.

  The girls rushed to help Andy and Chase. "Knife," said Janie. A sharp knife sprouted from her fingertip and she slit the ropes.

  "It's a good thing James hasn't mastered non-verbal spell commands," said Persephone as she watched him struggling to rip the tape from his mouth. "He looks mad enough to fry us."

  No one felt guilty leaving James as they dashed through a side doorway and into the next room. The whole place was lit by glowing glass symbols in the walls, floor and ceiling.

  "What do you suppose these mean?" asked Chase. He ran his hand across one of the weirdly shaped patterns. Its calming warmth radiated through him. It reminded him of the attic floor.

  "They look like the writing on the Relic, don't you think?" said Janie.

  "You're right," he said. "Can anyone tell what room this is?"

  After several minutes, Persephone came up with the answer. "This is the Enchantment Room! This is where Mr. Hiram gets the power to enchant things, like Andy's hat."

  "How'd you figure it out?" asked Chase.

  "Look closely at these wallpaper pictures. You can see different objects with gold, glowing beams shooting into them from the symbols. And, I saw pictures of a hat and sunglasses. So that helped." She smiled.

  "Good job, Persephone," he said, returning her smile.

  "Why is this with the fighting powers?" asked Andy. "It doesn't seem dangerous."

  "But it is," said Janie quietly, "since enchanted objects, like your hat, Andy, or Chase's sunglasses, can be used by anyone, even non-magical people. So something enchanted with destroying powers would be disastrous."

  "Then we better not let James see this room," said Chase. "We don't need him shooting lightning bolts from his eyes whenever he feels like it."

  They cut through another side door and into a wide hallway.

  "Where is he, anyway?" asked Andy. "I thought he'd be free by this time."

  "Maybe he's still stuck in the other room," said Chase, grinning. "Get it? Stuck."

  "Yeah, yeah, we get it," said Janie, rolling her eyes. "We're astounded by your brilliance."

  Glancing at his watch, Chase had an idea. "Why don't you guys go ahead? I'll go see if he's okay." He ducked back into the Enchantment Room. He wasn’t sure how this was done, but decided it was worth a shot. He pressed the watch against a glass symbol and concentrated with all his might. "I enchant this watch," he whispered, "with the power to give the wearer the ability to conjure and shoot whatever he wishes from his fingertips."

  Golden beams shot from the symbol and into the timepiece. It glowed like a dazzling neon sign then returned to normal. He had to stop himself from testing it. He needed to see what was up with James, and then find the others.

  But James was gone.

  Out in the hallway, he heard voices coming from an open doorway. Hurrying over, he peeked in. "Oh, geez!"

  Andy was on his hands and knees, barking like a dog; Janie was pretending to be a pop star and singing at the top of her lungs, while Persephone was clinging to James and gazing at him as if he were the greatest thing since magic.

  "James! What the heck are you doing?" he yelled from the doorway.

  "Just having a little fun," James answered. "This is the Bewitching Room. It gives me the power to have total mind control over anyone I want."

  "Stop it right now!" What was wrong with this guy?

  "Why don't you come in and
make me?" said James as he forced Andy to gallop in circles.

  Chase scowled at his cousin. He was so mad, he wanted to flip James over and bounce his head on the floor, but he didn't want to hurt Persephone in the process. He had to get closer. First, he needed something to distract the big dork. "Sorry, Andy," he murmured as he mentally lifted his brother and whisked him across the room.

  "Hey!" yelled James, taking his eyes off Chase.

  Not wanting to miss his chance, Chase darted across the floor and crashed into James and Persephone. The bewitching spells broke when he punched James right in the eye.

  "Ow!" James drew back his fist to return the punch, but stopped when a blazing flash lit up the room. The air felt electrified as the five kids were jerked high above the floor and dangled in midair like a bunch of stringless puppets.

  "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?"

  Grandfather stood in the doorway. His arms were raised and his eyes burned with a terrifying fierceness that twisted Chase's stomach into painful knots. Oh, man, they were so dead.

  "We were—" began James. Grandfather jerked up his finger and James's mouth clamped shut. With a quick flick of his hand, the kids vanished.

  Seconds later, they were seated in a row in front of Grandfather's desk. Chase shifted in the hard chair. Glancing sideways, he saw Persephone next to him, then Andy, Janie and lastly, James. They were all sitting as stiff as statues, and looking kind of green.

  Then Persephone leaned toward him and in a whisper so soft he barely heard her, she said, "Thanks for charging in."

  His face burned like a fiery sunset, but before he had a chance to respond, the study door burst open and in marched Grandfather, Aunt Clair and Mrs. Periwinkle. Chase wished he had Andy's invisibility cap as he watched Grandfather circle the desk and stop with his back to the room. His stern yet disappointed face was reflected in the night-darkened window. Chase shifted his eyes to the floor while his mind whirled with anxiety.

  Grandfather turned and gripped the back of his desk chair, his knuckles white against the black upholstery. He opened his mouth to speak, but Clair beat him to it. "What do you think you were doing?" she shouted, stomping back and forth, highlighting her words with waving arms and jabbing fingers. They cowered in their chairs as her anger swept over them like a tidal wave. "Breaking into your grandfather's bedroom to get into those rooms is one of the worst things possible! Those—powers—are—dangerous! One of you might have been seriously hurt. Or killed! But did you care? Apparently not. I've never seen such disgraceful behavior!"