Maddy West and the Tongue Taker

by Brian Falkner

  The compartment filled with light, which made her blink. When she finished blinking, the old man was gone. The train began to slow down, which meant they were approaching a station . . . the old man’s station, Maddy supposed.

  Her mom was just waking up.

  “He was really nice,” Maddy said.

  “Who was?” her mom asked.

  “That old man who was just here,” Maddy said.

  Her mom looked around, confused. “You shouldn’t talk to strangers,” she said.

  She was right, Maddy knew, but the old man hadn’t seemed like a stranger.

  “He saw me on TV,” Maddy said. “He thought I was very clever.”

  “Don’t be silly,” her mom said. “Today they were only recording the show. It doesn’t go on TV until next week.”

  “Oh,” Maddy said. “Perhaps he was in the audience then.”

  The only problem was, she hadn’t seen him in the audience, and she thought she would have noticed him if he had been there.

  “Don’t talk to strangers,” her mom said again.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  PROFESSOR COATELOCH

  MADDY HAD ANOTHER VISITOR the next week. It was unusual because Maddy hardly ever had visitors. Her mom and dad often had visitors but not Maddy. (Unless you counted Kazuki, and she didn’t, since he only lived next door.)

  But Mr. Holdem had come to visit her, and now Professor Coateloch had come to see her too. It was exciting to have so many visitors.

  Both her mom and dad were there because it was a Tuesday and the restaurant where her dad worked was closed that day.

  Maddy was busy reading a cookbook after school when the professor arrived, so she didn’t go out to see who was there until her dad came to her door. He filled the whole doorway.

  Her dad was a big man, very tall, and quite roly-poly. Never trust a thin chef, he always said. He was wearing an old T-shirt and a baseball cap, which were his usual clothes when he wasn’t working.

  He smiled when he saw that Maddy was reading a cookbook.

  “There’s someone here to see you,” he said.

  “Really? Who is it?” Maddy asked.

  “A professor from the University of Cambridge,” her dad said. “Professor Coateloch.”

  Professor Coateloch did not look anything like what Maddy had expected. She thought a professor should have a long, gray beard, and wear black robes, and be quite old. But Professor Coateloch was not wearing black robes and did not have a long, gray beard. She would have looked rather funny if she did, Maddy thought, because Professor Coateloch was a woman. She wore a pretty apricot-colored dress and had her black hair pulled back in a ponytail.

  “Hello, Maddy,” she said.

  “Hello, um, Professor,” Maddy said.

  “Professor Coateloch needs your help,” her dad said and laughed as though that was funny. He often laughed at things that weren’t really funny. He just liked to laugh. But Maddy didn’t mind. She loved his big jolly laugh.

  “What kind of help?” Maddy asked.

  “Maddy, it seems that you have quite a special ability,” Professor Coateloch said. “I won’t pretend to understand it, and while there are a number of my colleagues in the linguistics department who would like to study you, that’s not what I’m here for.”

  Maddy waited for her to continue.

  “This is quite a long story,” Professor Coateloch said.

  Maddy smiled at her. “I like stories,” she said. “Especially long ones.”

  Her dad laughed at that, and Professor Coateloch laughed too.

  “Maddy, there are hundreds of different languages in the world today,” Professor Coateloch said. “But if we look back in history, there were hundreds more that have died out because people stopped speaking them. In ancient Rome they spoke Latin, but nobody speaks that language anymore unless they study it at school or in college.”

  “Do you think I could speak that language, too?” Maddy asked.

  “Let’s find out,” the professor said. She continued in a different language. “Right now I am talking to you in Latin. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes,” Maddy said.

  “Good girl,” Professor Coateloch said in English. “Some languages have completely disappeared. And many languages don’t even use the same alphabet that we use in English.”

  “Like Japanese,” Maddy said.

  “That’s right,” Professor Coateloch said. “And in the olden days there were many other alphabets.”

  “Tell her about the monks,” Maddy’s dad said, and winked at Maddy.

  “Certainly,” the professor said. “There is an ancient monastery in Bulgaria. That’s a country in Europe near Greece and Turkey. The monastery is on an island in the Black Sea. Do you know where that is?”

  “No, not really,” Maddy said.

  “Never mind,” Professor Coateloch said. “Bulgaria is one of the oldest countries in the world, and this monastery was built thousands of years ago.”

  “Wow,” Maddy said. She was trying to imagine anything that old.

  “Yes, wow,” Professor Coateloch said. “In the monastery there is a very old book. Well, not a book like you would know it. It is a series of scrolls.”

  “What’s a scroll?” Maddy asked.

  “It’s like a roll of paper,” Professor Coateloch said. “Except it’s not really paper — it’s made from animal skin. It’s called parchment. These scrolls were written in an ancient language that has been lost for over a thousand years. Nobody knows how to read this book. The alphabet is a very early form of Cyrillic — that’s the type of letters that people in that part of the world use. It’s called the Glagolitic alphabet. Here’s what it looks like.”

  She took a piece of paper from her briefcase and put it on the coffee table. Professor Coateloch was right. It certainly didn’t look like the alphabet Maddy learned in school, or Kazuki’s Japanese books either. It looked like funny squiggles drawn by a small child. She could tell it was a type of writing, though, from the way the letters were grouped into words.

  Professor Coateloch said, “The scrolls were only discovered a few years ago, and since that time, linguists have been trying to translate them, but so far, nobody has managed to.”

  “Why are they so interested in them?” Maddy asked.

  “These scrolls are very special,” the professor said. “There are no others like them in the whole world. The monks who look after them believe they contain secret knowledge.”

  “That is exciting,” Maddy said. “Do you have a copy of them?”

  Professor Coateloch shook her head. “Nobody does,” she said. “The monks will not allow them to be copied or photographed.”

  “That’s just silly.” Maddy’s dad laughed.

  “It’s what they believe,” Professor Coateloch said. “Maddy, we were hoping that you might be able to help us translate the scrolls.”

  “I don’t think I can read those kinds of letters,” Maddy said.

  “Would you try?” the professor asked. She pointed to the piece of paper. “This is a different language but from the same part of the world, and around the same time. This one is called Proto-Slavic. It is an excerpt from the Bible. Does it make any sense at all to you?”

  The professor hesitated before handing Maddy the paper. Maddy sensed that this was an important moment for her.

  Maddy felt quite excited by the whole thing and just a little bit nervous, but her dad winked at her, and the nervousness went away.

  She stared at the piece of paper, intrigued but confused by the strange yet neat characters. Some of the words were long and others were short, but none made any sense to her. Not even a single character made sense.

  She shook her head. “Sorry.” She handed the paper back to the professor. “Wait!”

  Just as she
was passing it back, out of the corner of her eye, it suddenly seemed to come into focus.

  “What?” the professor asked.

  Maddy said nothing and put the paper down on the table in front of her, not really looking at it, but looking past it. When she did that, the words seemed to make sense. Slowly, she shifted her gaze across the table until she was staring right at it, and this time she could read it as clearly as if it was English.

  “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.” Maddy grinned a big mouth full of teeth and clapped her hands. “I did it!” she squeaked.

  “That is incredible.” The professor shook her head. Her voice was soft. “Maddy you are truly amazing. Nobody has spoken that language for hundreds of years, yet you were able to translate it.”

  “The child is a genius!” her dad said, and laughed again.

  “I’d love to help,” Maddy said.

  “Wonderful,” Professor Coateloch said. “But there’s one problem. You see, we can’t bring the scrolls to you, so we would have to take you to the scrolls.”

  “Where are they again?” Maddy asked.

  “Bulgaria,” Professor Coateloch said.

  Maddy sat there with her mouth open, and her eyes blinking. She had never been out of England before. And Bulgaria sounded a very long way away.

  “Bulgaria?” her mom said. “Nobody said anything about Bulgaria!”

  “It’s a lovely country,” the professor said. “And the town we would be visiting, Sozopol, is on the shores of the Black Sea. You could visit the beach or go sightseeing while Maddy and I work on the scrolls.”

  “It’s a long way to go.” Maddy’s mother sniffed.

  “There must be some other way,” her dad said.

  Professor Coateloch shook her head. “If you want to read the scrolls, you have to go to the monastery.”

  “In Bulgaria.” Her mom screwed up her face.

  “What do you think, Maddy?” the professor asked.

  “I’d love to go!” Maddy said. “But . . .” She looked at her mother.

  “To Bulgaria? Not me,” her mom said. “You know I’m afraid of flying. Besides, there would be lots of people speaking strange foreign languages. I wouldn’t understand a word they were saying.”

  “It has to be you, dear,” her dad said. “You know that I can’t afford to take time off work at the moment.”

  “Certainly not,” her mom said. “I couldn’t possibly.”

  “Sozopol really is a beautiful seaside town,” Professor Coateloch said.

  Maddy’s mom crossed her arms and said nothing.

  “I’d love to go, but I can’t,” her dad said.

  There was a long, awkward silence.

  “Would you be willing to let me accompany Maddy?” Professor Coateloch said at last. “I mean, we’d have to sign some papers, awarding me temporary guardianship or some such arrangement, but I can promise you that I would look after her as if she was my own daughter.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Maddy’s dad said.

  “I am not sure we want our daughter traipsing all over the world with a total stranger,” her mom said.

  “Not that you’re a stranger,” her dad said. “Not now.”

  Her mom leaned over and whispered in her dad’s ear. He looked a little uncomfortable. She nudged him.

  “Of course, if you were to reconsider the amount of the . . . uh . . . compensation,” he said.

  “If that will help,” the professor said doubtfully. “I’ll talk to my colleagues and see if we can adjust the offer.”

  “When would this trip be?” Maddy’s mom asked. “Maddy can’t take time off school, you know.”

  “Of course not,” Professor Coateloch said. “When is the next school vacation?”

  “In just two weeks!” Maddy said.

  “Perhaps then,” the professor said. “I’ll talk to my colleagues tomorrow about the . . . financial side of things.”

  “These scrolls,” Maddy asked, “do they have a name?”

  “Yes, we think so,” Professor Coateloch said. “Here it is in the old language.”

  She pulled a piece of paper from her briefcase and put it down in front of Maddy. On it were hand-drawn characters that were similar to, but not the same as, the other ones. Maddy glanced at them and then away a couple of times until they began to come into focus.

  “Can you understand that?” Maddy’s dad asked.

  “Yes, I can,” Maddy said, a worried look coming over her face.

  The three adults watched Maddy and waited.

  “The Paths of Ancient Magic,” Maddy said.

  ***

  The next day, Maddy’s mom took her to have her photograph taken, and the week after, a letter arrived in the mail addressed to Maddy. When she opened it, out fell a little burgundy book with the word “Passport” on the front cover.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  PACKING

  MADDY PACKED HER OWN BAG for the trip. She didn’t have a suitcase, so she just emptied her schoolbag and put everything in that she thought she might need. She put in lots of pairs of socks and underwear, her best jeans, and the skirt she wore to church, along with some old shorts and T-shirts in case they had to do any exploring or anything exciting like that.

  She also packed her swimsuit, because she had read about the Black Sea in a book in the school library and found out that it was a very popular place for tourists, with lovely warm water. So maybe there would be time for a swim. Even with all of that, her backpack was only half full.

  Kazuki arrived while she was packing.

  “When do you leave?” he asked.

  “On Saturday,” she said.

  “Are you excited?” he asked.

  “Actually, I’m very nervous,” Maddy said.

  “Why?” Kazuki asked.

  Maddy stopped packing and sat down on her bed. She had been thinking about the old man on the train and what he had said. When she remembered it now, it didn’t seem real. The compartment had been empty when they sat down, she was sure of it, and the tunnel couldn’t have taken that long to get through, and he couldn’t possibly have seen her on TV, so none of it made sense.

  Perhaps she had fallen asleep on the train and dreamed the whole thing.

  Or perhaps not.

  “What’s wrong?” Kazuki asked, sitting down beside Maddy.

  “A few weeks ago I was on the train,” she said. “I think I might have dozed off to sleep. Then I woke up, and there was an old man, and he told me to beware of black magic or something like that.”

  “Why?” Kazuki asked.

  “I don’t know. I thought it was just a dream, but then Professor Coateloch told me about the ancient scrolls, and now I don’t know what to do.”

  “Do you believe in magic?” Kazuki asked.

  “I’m not really sure. I don’t think so,” Maddy said.

  “What are you going to do?” Kazuki asked.

  Maddy took a deep breath. “I guess if I don’t go, I’ll never find out.”

  “Find out what?” Kazuki asked.

  “Anything,” Maddy said. There was a pause.

  “Where are you going in Bulgaria?” Kazuki asked.

  “First to the capital city, which is called Sofia,” Maddy said. “Then we go by train to a city called Burgas and by bus to Sozopol. Then we take a boat over to the island where the monastery is.”

  “Wow. That’s a lot of traveling,” Kazuki said. “You might need a ninja to protect you.” He made some cool karate moves with his arms.

  Maddy smiled but then realized he was being serious. “That’s very brave of you, Kazuki, but I’ll be fine,” she said.

  “W
hat about the black magic?” Kazuki asked.

  “It was probably a dream,” Maddy said, “in which case, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  MR. SLAVINSKI AND HIS FUNNY MONKEY

  THE AIRPORT WAS FULL OF PEOPLE: people of all different shapes, sizes, colors, and clothes. Maddy had never seen so many people all in one place before. There was a whole team of teenagers bouncing a soccer ball around between them. There were men in long robes and other men wearing colorful floral wraparound skirts. There were people with pins through their noses and their ears. People with tattoos on their arms and on their faces.

  Two teenage goth girls seemed to be watching Maddy as she walked with Professor Coateloch through the airport. They wore black leather jackets, and their hair was dyed jet-black. They had black nail polish and black eye makeup and black lipstick.

  A man with long hair and a bushy beard was sitting on one of the seats. He was the biggest man Maddy had ever seen in her life, and quite possibly the biggest man in the world. He was taller sitting down than most people were standing up. He sat on the end of one of the rows of seats, and the arms of the chair seemed to have to bend to fit him in. The seat next to him was empty. Well, not entirely empty — on it sat a toy monkey wearing bright blue pants, a red waistcoat, and a hat. It was the kind of hat that men wore in old-fashioned movies. The monkey looked so real that Maddy thought it would start moving by itself. Then it did! It turned its head to look at her, and she realized that it was real. It was a little capuchin monkey like she had read about in books.

  She stopped suddenly. Professor Coateloch stopped a few paces farther ahead when she realized that Maddy wasn’t with her anymore.

  Maddy stared at the monkey, and it stared back at her. She smiled, and the monkey smiled right back.

  The big man had his eyes shut, but he opened one and regarded her for a moment before closing it again. Maddy thought he looked sad. Scary, but sad.

  The monkey, however, was very happy to see Maddy and jumped up and down on the seat. It even did a backflip, landing right back on its feet. That was about all it could do, however, because of the thin leash attached to a collar around its neck that disappeared into the gigantic hand of the man.