Quest for the Secret Keeper

by Victoria Laurie

  The earl’s shoulders sagged, but he did not turn around. “Ian,” he said. “Come in, lad.”

  Ian moved into the library and noticed for the first time that the earl held a yellow piece of paper in his hand. He wondered what the telegram said, but it would have been impolite to ask directly, so he got around it by saying, “Is there news?”

  The earl’s reaction surprised him. He crinkled the paper into a small ball and squeezed it in his fist until his knuckles were tight. “I have a report from the man I hired within Belgium to find out what has happened to Monsieur Lafitte,” he said, his voice tired and sad.

  Ian felt the ominous sense of dread settle into his bones. He remembered what Theo had said about the fate of Monsieur Lafitte. “It’s not good news, is it?”

  “No, Ian. It isn’t.”

  “Has he been taken somewhere else?”

  “He’s been shot. Murdered in cold blood.”

  Ian felt as if he’d been kicked in the stomach. “Poor Océanne!” he gasped. “And Madame Lafitte!”

  The earl turned then, his eyes red and filled with sorrow. “Leo was one of my dearest friends, and I failed him,” he confessed. “I failed to help him.”

  Ian recovered himself and shook his head vigorously. “No!” he told the earl. “No, my lord! You didn’t fail Monsieur Lafitte. The Nazis killed him and they would have killed his whole family had it not been for you. You saved Océanne and Madame Lafitte, my lord.”

  The earl closed his eyes and stood there, swaying slightly on his feet. He looked older than Ian could ever remember having seen him look, as if the news of Monsieur Lafitte’s murder had taken years off his own life. “I should have done more,” he said.

  A knock on the door behind Ian caused him to turn. He saw that Theo was out of bed. “There you are!” she said when she saw him. “Ian, I’ve been looking all over for—” Theo stopped midsentence and stared at the earl, her forehead creasing with worry. “What’s happened?”

  The earl limped over to a nearby chaise and sat down heavily. He patted the cushion beside him and Theo moved to sit next to him. “I’ve received word regarding Océanne’s father,” he said gently.

  Theo’s hand flew to her mouth and she needed no further explanation. She flung her arms about the earl’s neck and said, “Oh, my lord! I’m so terribly sorry!”

  The earl appeared to struggle with his emotions for a moment and Ian looked away, feeling awkward and unsettled. “Thank you for your concern, Theo,” the earl said after a moment, when he’d regained his voice. “Please don’t say anything to Océanne or her mother until I’ve had a chance to explain.”

  Theo backed away from the earl and regarded him soberly. “I won’t, my lord, I promise.”

  Ian remembered the late hour and what Theo had said when she came into the room. “You were looking for me?” he asked.

  “Oh, yes! I almost forgot. Mistress Adria has asked if you would like to come say goodbye to Iyoclease in the morning. She’s sending him back through the portal and then she’ll go in search of her husband.”

  “Yes, of course,” Ian quickly said. “When will they be setting off?”

  “At dawn.”

  Ian looked to the earl as if to ask if he’d be joining them in the send-off, but the earl merely sighed and shook his head. “Please give my apologies to both Iyoclease and Mistress Adria,” he said. “But I don’t know that I’m up for any additional goodbyes at the moment.”

  Theo patted his hand knowingly. “Of course, my lord. Of course.”

  The earl seemed to think of something then. “I am informed that Mr. Perry Goodwyn is in residence here at my home, back from his envoy mission up the coast for the admiral. I’m quite certain that both Perry and Thatcher would like nothing better than to accompany you down to the portal and witness Adria’s command over the portal door.”

  “That would be lovely,” Theo quickly said. “Carl will be coming along too.”

  “Excellent,” said the earl. “My flatware could use a bit of respite from Master Lawson’s new talent.”

  Ian smiled. The last he’d seen his friend, he’d been turning all the earl’s spoons into little charms for Eva. Carl had come home to a sizable stack of letters from her, and Ian knew his friend was most smitten.

  Theo got up from the chaise and moved over to take Ian’s hand. “Come along, Ian,” she said. “You’ll need to get some rest before tomorrow. Something tells me it will be another long day.”

  Ian, Theo, and Carl were able to catch only a few hours’ rest before Adria woke them and said it was time to go. Ian rubbed his eyes and yawned loudly. Carl grumbled to himself as he put on his trousers and fumbled with the buttons on his shirt. “Tell me again why we need to go so early?”

  “Adria wants to catch up with Adrastus,” Ian replied, shivering in the cool morning air. “And she can’t do that until she sends Iyoclease back to his own time.”

  “Let’s hope we get a bit of breakfast before we give our farewells,” Carl said with a yawn, and then he did something that caught Ian’s attention. Carl subtly reached under his bed and pulled out the bronze sword they’d found next to the embedded skeleton in the wall of the portal. He normally kept it at the keep, tucked away in his trunk.

  “When did you have time to retrieve that?” Ian asked him.

  “Last night when you went to talk to the earl. I wanted to show it to Iyoclease and see if he recognizes it.”

  Ian had a moment when he didn’t think that was an especially good idea, because if Iyoclease did recognize the sword, he might also know the soldier who’d lost his life when the portal closed around him.

  He considered saying as much to Carl, but his friend was already hurrying out the door on his way to see about breakfast.

  Ian caught up to him at the bottom of the stairs, where Theo and Adria had already gathered. Both were watching with a mixture of humor and distaste as Carl stuffed his face with two muffins at the same time.

  “My word, Carl,” Adria said to him. “Attempt to chew that a bit before you swallow, lest you choke on it, all right?”

  Carl nodded sheepishly and tried to wash it all down with a cup of tea.

  Iyoclease arrived and so did Perry, looking chipper and excited. “I say,” he said when he spotted them all in the hallway. “But you lot are a sight for sore eyes!”

  Theo dashed over to him and gave him a hug. “We’ve missed you, Schoolmaster,” she told him.

  Perry smiled. “Yes, yes,” he said. “Me too. Has anyone seen my brother?”

  “I’m here,” said Thatcher, coming down the hallway from the left side of the castle. The two brothers shook hands and patted each other on the shoulder. “Good to have you back, Perry,” Thatcher told him.

  “It’s good to be back,” Perry replied.

  Introductions were then made and Perry took a particular interest in Iyoclease, who was dressed in the same attire he’d worn when he’d come through the portal. “What marvelous craftsmanship,” Perry said to him when he took in the polished bronzed breastplate and gleaming helmet Iyoclease held tucked under one arm.

  “We need to be off,” Adria reminded them.

  Ian was glad to set off. He longed to go back to his bed and planned to do just that the moment he’d given his farewells to Iyoclease and Adria.

  It was still quite dark out, and Perry struck a match to light the lantern he’d brought along. He and his brother chatted about Perry’s experience from the front lines and how happy he was to have a few weeks’ leave before he’d be called up again.

  When they reached the woods near the portal entrance, Ian and Carl led the way. Carl hadn’t shown Iyoclease his sword yet; it was still tucked inside his coat. Ian suspected he intended to wait until they were near the skeleton to reveal it.

  Walking down the stairs, he thought again about how the sword might belong to someone Iyoclease knew personally, and how showing it to him next to the skeleton embedded in the wall could prove unsettling to the
already anxious soldier. Ian was about to say as much when he noticed something that stopped him in his tracks. He thrust out his arm to stop Carl from moving past him down the stairs.

  “What?” Carl asked when he bumped sleepily into Ian’s arm.

  “Look,” Ian said, pointing to the tunnel entrance.

  Carl rubbed his eyes. “I don’t see anything.”

  “You don’t see the light coming from the tunnel?” Ian asked.

  “Oh!” Carl said. “Yeah, now that you mention it. Is there someone down there, do you suppose?”

  Ian moved quietly down the stairs. He could hear the others talking somewhere behind him and Carl, but no one else had reached the steps yet.

  Making it to the bottom, he paused at the gate, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Carl had brought out his sword and was holding it in front of him.

  Ian unlatched the catch and pulled the gate open, stepping into the dimness and staring with large astonished eyes at the end of the tunnel.

  “It’s open!” Carl nearly shouted. “The portal’s open!”

  Ian walked down the length of the tunnel to where the wall had once been. Piled into a heap were the skeletal remains of the soldier, but beyond them was something far more terrifying.

  The portal opened up to the top of a bluff on a steep hillside overlooking a lush green valley. In the distance, structures were clearly distinguishable, and on all of them hung huge red flags with a white circle and a black swastika. “You’ve got to be bloomin’ joking!” Carl whispered next to Ian.

  “Ian?” he heard Theo call down the stairs.

  Ian was nearly too stunned to reply. After Theo called to him a second time, he said, “Come quickly! And bring the others!”

  He and Carl stood stock-still on their side of the tunnel, not daring to take an inch over the worn line of stone where the portal wall would reappear. There was a flurry of footsteps behind them; Perry and Thatcher were still chatting merrily until they entered the tunnel, and all conversation abruptly stopped.

  “My heavens!” exclaimed one of them.

  “It’s open!” Theo said, and her footsteps hurried down the cavern floor. She came to stand next to Ian and took his hand. “Where is this place?”

  “Austria or northern Germany, by the looks of that mountain range,” Thatcher said, pointing to the beautiful snow-tipped mountains in the distance.

  Adria stepped close too. “Who opened the portal?”

  Ian tore his eyes away from the flags waving gently in the early morning breeze. “It was open when we got here,” he told her.

  Adria peered through the opening to the land beyond. “It has obviously opened for you.”

  “Me?” Ian gasped.

  “Yes,” she told him, an unreadable expression coming over her face. “I’ve not been here before,” she said. “This must be the location that opened to my husband at the green door. If so, this would be the final location of his last box—but your fourth, if I’m not mistaken.”

  “Are you going to go find the general?” Ian asked, pointing to the beautiful land beyond the cavern.

  Adria appeared tempted but shook her head. “Not now,” she said, looking at Iyoclease. “I must return our friend to his own time. Then I will come back and seek out my husband.”

  “Should we wait for you here?” Ian asked her, hoping her idea was to find Adrastus and bring him and the box back to England.

  Adria smiled at him like he’d just said something funny. “No, Ian. You must venture through now and find the next Oracle and, hopefully, the silver box my husband is hiding too.”

  Ian’s jaw fell open. “You can’t expect me to go there!” he nearly shouted.

  Carl, Thatcher, and Perry all jumped in with protests too. But Adria was firm in her resolve. “It is not my directive,” she told them all. “It is Laodamia’s. And go there you must. If you don’t, then everything you have worked so hard for will be for naught, and all hope to stand against the four sorcerers will be lost.”

  Carl and Ian exchanged looks of outrage. “Bloody prophecy!” Carl growled.

  Theo laid a gentle hand on Ian’s shoulder. “Mistress Adria is right,” she said. “We’ve got to step through and finish the third prophecy.”

  Ian stared at her with large eyes. “Theo,” he said, “that’s Germany! In case you hadn’t noticed lately, they’re trying to kill us. If we go there, we’ll be shot before day’s end!”

  Theo pointed to the string around his neck holding the pouch with the Star of Lixus. “You’ll speak perfect German,” she insisted. “And with our fair hair we shouldn’t stand out. We can blend in until we find the Thinker.”

  “What’s she going on about?” Carl demanded, clearly irritated by the prospect of venturing into enemy territory.

  “The Thinker,” Ian said glumly. “You’re the Metal Master, which would make the next Oracle the Thinker.”

  “You can’t seriously be thinking of going through the portal, can you?” Thatcher asked.

  Ian cast a reluctant stare at his schoolmaster. “I’m afraid there’s no help for it,” he said, stepping over the line and turning to look back at them.

  Theo promptly joined him but Ian took her by the shoulders, pivoted her around, and sent her back to the other side of the marker. “Absolutely not,” he said to her. “I’ll not risk your life too.”

  Theo glared at him and fought against his firm hands. “Stop it, Ian! You’ll need me!”

  Carl sighed heavily and took a large step forward. “I’ll look after him, Theo,” he said, reaching out to stop her when she tried to dart sideways across the line. “And please, don’t tell Eva I’ve done something so stupid.”

  But Theo was ignoring Carl at the moment. “Let me come!” she demanded, her face red with determination.

  “No,” Ian said firmly. “Carl and I will manage on our own.”

  Thatcher reached over and held Theo by the shoulders. “Ian and Carl are right. It’s far too dangerous this time.”

  Perry made a disgruntled sound, stepping over to stand beside Ian and Carl. “I’ve a feeling I’m going to regret this,” he muttered when Ian smiled gratefully at him.

  “Perry!” his brother snapped. “Get back here this instant! You’re wearing your uniform, for heaven’s sake!”

  But Perry merely shrugged out of his coat and tossed it to Thatcher. “I’ll steal something from one of the locals,” he said. “Until then, no one’s going to notice my trousers and boots as anything but fashionable.”

  Theo, who still appeared furious, reached up and took off the pouch containing her bit of the Star of Lixus. She tossed it to Perry and said, “Here, Schoolmaster. Please look after Ian and Carl.”

  “Thank you, my dear,” Perry said. “I shall bring them back, I promise.”

  And then something unexpected happened. Iyoclease crossed the line and stood next to them too. “What are you doing?” Adria demanded.

  “I can see that there is danger in this land,” he said calmly. “They will need a soldier to protect them.”

  “No! It’s too dangerous, Iyoclease! We must get you back home to your own time!” Adria insisted.

  Iyoclease shook his head stubbornly. “I cannot believe that my only purpose within the prophecy was to helm a ship, Adria. There must be a larger reason why I’m here. And I believe that reason is to see these young men safely through this part of their quest.”

  Adria appeared completely astonished, as if she couldn’t believe the man dared argue with her. “Iyoclease, I insist you come back over this line so that I can send you back to Laodamia at once!”

  “You may send me back when I return,” he said, and the last of his sentence was all but drowned out when there was a very loud grating noise and the wall appeared in front of them, sealing everyone on the other side out of view.

  For several long seconds no one said a word. They all just stared at the stone, which held the skeleton again. After a moment or two, Perry cleared his throa
t. “Very well, then,” he said. “Where did Laodamia say we must start?”

  Ian pulled the prophecy from his pocket and began to scan the lines. “She said something about going where our hearts would fear to tread.…”

  “We can check that one off,” Carl said, turning to stare with distaste at the billowing flags below.

  Ian ignored him and was about to suggest they form some sort of plan when a grating sound behind them made them turn back to the wall. Adria appeared with her arms crossed over her chest while Thatcher and Theo, somewhat astonished, stood in the background. With a determined look, Adria stepped over the line where the wall had been, then pivoted and thrust her hands down and out. The wall closed immediately.

  “If Iyoclease will not cooperate, then I’ve no choice but to help you see this part of your quest through as well.”

  “Where should we begin?” Perry asked.

  Adria squinted straight down the bluff to a cluster of buildings resembling an abbey or a church. “There,” she said. “That’s as good a place as any to start. We can approach the abbey through the woods, spy on it and the inhabitants from the cover of the trees, and hopefully glean some details about what part of Germany or Austria we’re in.”

  Without further discussion Adria began walking purposefully down the steep hill. Ian didn’t hesitate to follow her and was relieved when Carl came up beside him. “This is pure madness,” Carl grumbled.

  They had to cross a roadway at one point, and the five of them were nearly hit by a speeding motorcar that beeped rudely at them as it passed by. Ian’s heart thundered as he scuttled across the road. He’d caught a glimpse of the red, white, and black flag painted on the side of the black sedan, and it sent a ripple of fear straight through him.

  Adria hastened them into a clump of nearby woods for shelter, and luck seemed to be on their side, because the car didn’t double back to take a better look at them.

  Their good fortune held when they realized that the woods butted up to the side of the cluster of buildings and they were able to approach it under the cover of the forest.

  Spreading out to use the trees to hide their advance, the five of them peeked out at the abbey. Carl didn’t seem to like his tree, however, because he scooted over to sit next to Ian behind a large fir.