Behind the Bookcase Page 9

  “Hurry, then, child,” Edgar called to her. “Once they find out you are gone, they will send everyone after you.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me that before?” she asked.

  “Never mind that. Now hurry.”

  Sarah waved at them one last time, then faced the darkness and climbed toward it.

  The smoke vent was long and narrow and seemed to be getting narrower the higher she went. She looked back down but could see only a bare sliver of blue light far below her feet. She inched along, pulling herself with one arm, holding the glass case with Jeb’s face tightly in the other. Just when she thought the vent would never end, her fingers found the top edge and she heaved a sigh of relief. Gripping as hard as she could, she pulled herself up. Then she felt a terrible scraping as the glass case with Jeb’s face got stuck between the cold stone walls of the smoke vent.

  “No,” Sarah whispered, worried that their plan would be undone before it even started.

  She pushed the case back down again, as hard as she could. It slid free with such force that she nearly dropped it. She tried pulling it up again but realized that it wouldn’t fit through with her body at the same time.

  Carefully, she lifted her head up and looked over the edge of the smoke vent. She was on a wall overlooking the platform where Mr. Ink had dropped them. Along the wall on the far side, she saw a pair of the squat one-eyed creatures clutching blue torches. Otherwise, the space was empty.

  She pulled herself up a little higher and looked over her shoulder. The Moonlit Sea stretched out behind her as far as she could see, just as Edgar had shown her on the map. As she climbed out of the vent, she let the glass case slide down the front of her body to her feet. Sitting on the edge of the vent, she pulled her feet up slowly, little by little, until she could grab the case and pull it free.

  As she stood, she was relieved to see that she was on the outer wall. Had she come out near the platform, she would have still been trapped inside the Black Iron Prison. Here on the wall, nothing but air stood between her and the sea below. This was the good news, but it was also the bad news. In order to get away, she had to jump. There was simply no other choice. If she didn’t jump, they would never be free.

  She tried to remember all the times she had jumped from high places. She remembered the diving board at her friend Molly’s house. Although she had been scared to jump at first, she had soon discovered how much fun it was. By the end of that summer, in fact, she had become an expert at jumping on the board hard enough to bounce fairly high. The next summer, she had moved up to the high dive at the Orange Park pool. She had been scared at first with that, too. But once she had done it a few times, Molly’s old diving board seemed positively boring. When they had gone camping later, her mom and dad had taken her to a swimming hole with a cliff that was twice as high as the high dive. She hadn’t wanted to jump off it at first. Then, finally, on the last day of their stay, she had gotten her nerve up and gone in.

  The jump before her now was easily more than three times as high as that cliff at the campground. Even though she knew she had no choice, she still felt scared. Was the moonlight deep enough? Would it act just like water and really catch her fall? What if she swallowed more of it when she went under? That would make her turn into one of those sentinels even faster. Sarah shook her head and took a step backward, away from the wall.

  She lifted the glass case and looked at Jeb’s face. The eye was closed, as if this small part of him was sleeping. She wished he were with her now. She wished she could hold his hand and they could jump together. Then she decided that this was really the next best thing. So she gripped the case tightly in both hands and ran toward the edge as fast as she could.

  The fall seemed impossibly long. The walls of the Black Iron Prison whooshed past her, dark and cold. When at last she plunged into the icy moonlight, she squeezed her eyes shut and held her breath, closing her mouth as tightly as possible. Down, down into the blinding depths she went. The moonlight was not as dense as water, so she went much deeper than she expected. When her feet touched the bottom, she pushed hard and shot toward the surface. When she broke through, she caught a deep breath and paddled hard, pulling herself toward the shore. Some of the moonlight got into her mouth and she winced once again with the sharp taste of it, spitting it out frantically.

  It was much harder to swim in the moonlight than in water. The more she flapped her arms and legs, the less progress she seemed to make. She got tired very fast; for a short time she was afraid she wasn’t going to make it. Then the waves pushed at her back and her feet found the ground and she walked the rest of the way to the shore.

  The moonlight streamed off her body and onto the black sand around her. How strange it was to feel she should be wet and yet still be perfectly dry. She looked behind her at the towering face of the Black Iron Prison and couldn’t believe she had jumped from such a height. She thought of Jeb and Edgar still inside the Blue Suite and knew that she must hurry to get them out of there.

  She took the map out of her pocket and unfolded it. She retraced the path Edgar had shown her, from the Black Iron Prison to the Moonlit Sea and then along the shoreline to Crooked Canyon and the Green Desert beyond.

  She folded the map again and neatly tucked it back into her pocket, then made sure she had a good grip on the glass case with Jeb’s face. With one last look over her shoulder, she started up the beach.

  Eventually the beach gave way to rockier ground and an uphill slope. It would have been easier to leave the beach and head to higher ground, but as far as Sarah could tell from the map, the mouth of Crooked Canyon opened at the sea’s edge. So she picked her way over a series of boulders and stuck to the ever-narrowing strip of sand closest to the lapping moonlight.

  The ground to her left got higher and higher, rising into the sky at such a steep angle, it began to look like it would fall on her. She saw holes in the rock face that looked like caves and she shivered at the thought of what might live in them. She picked up her pace and finally found what she hoped was the entrance to Crooked Canyon. Just to be sure, she walked across the mouth to the other side, where she discovered it was completely blocked by a pile of fallen boulders. If she wanted to go any farther, she would have to climb the steep wall or swim around it. She decided that even if this wasn’t Crooked Canyon, it was the way she was going. She took a deep breath and started along the path.

  The walls of the canyon were steep and high. The narrow band of starless sky looked like a dark blue river. Inside the canyon, the sound of the Moonlit Sea crashing onto the shore behind her got even louder. As the path cut to the left and then back to the right again, Sarah began to feel certain that this must be Crooked Canyon. It was certainly crooked enough. With every turn, the Moonlit Sea slipped farther from view and the canyon grew darker. After getting caught by Mr. Ink, she felt especially scared of the shadows. He could be in any of the pools of darkness; in fact, he could actually be any of the pools of darkness. She shivered at the thought and picked up her pace, trying to concentrate instead on following the path.

  “Psst!” something hissed behind her, and Sarah jumped, shrieking. She whirled around quickly and peered into the darkness, her eyes darting back and forth. She stepped backward and caught her foot on a rock, tripped, and sat down hard. The darkness between two rocks shifted and a pair of glowing yellow eyes blinked at her.

  “Who’s there?” she asked.

  The creature, just bigger than her little brother, Billy, waddled into the middle of the path, stood up straight, and stretched its wings open. It was a giant bat, but with a little boy’s face. He twitched his ears at her and stepped closer. “I don’t know,” he said sadly. “I was hoping you could tell me.”

  All at once, Sarah felt relieved. He wasn’t scary, just scared. Maybe even more scared of her than she was of him. “You mean you don’t even know your own name?” she said as she got back to her feet.

  He looked at her, stretching his wings once more before fol
ding them back at his side, then shook his head. “No,” he said.

  “My name’s Sarah,” she said, and held out her hand.

  He shook it with the tiny hook at the top of his wing. “Nice to meet you,” he said.

  “Did you ever know your name?”

  The bat-boy shrugged. “I don’t remember.”

  “Can you remember anything?”

  “Just that I’ve always been in this place.”

  “You mean here, in Crooked Canyon?”

  “Is that what it’s called?”

  Sarah nodded and suddenly felt very sad for the little bat-boy. She suspected that he was another of Balthazat’s victims. Like Jeb, only instead of stealing a part of his face, Balthazat had turned him into a giant bat with no memory. She wished there was some way she could help him, too. Then she had an idea. “Can you fly?” she asked.

  The bat-boy nodded.

  “Have you ever been to the Green Desert?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “But if I told you how to get to the Green Desert, you could fly me there, right?”

  “I could try.”

  “If you would help me do that, then maybe I could help you find out your name.”

  “You could?”

  Sarah nodded. “I could try. What do you say?”

  “Hop on,” the bat-boy said.

  “Before I do that, we need to decide what I should call you. Until we find out your real name, I mean. I wouldn’t feel right saying ‘Hey, you’ all the time.”

  “What would you like to call me?”

  Sarah held her chin in one hand and stared at him for a long time. “Well,” she said, “you’re like a bat and a boy. But ‘Bat-Boy’ doesn’t sound very nice. Suppose I just call you ‘B.B.’ for short.”

  “B.B.?”

  “What do you think?”

  He considered it for a moment, then nodded. “B.B. it is.”

  Sarah smiled and climbed onto B.B.’s back. The spots not covered with heavy black fur were leathery but warm. “Okay,” she said, locking her arms around his thick neck.

  “Okay,” he said, and spread his wings wide, flapping until they rose into the air. They veered to the left for so long that Sarah thought they were going to crash into the wall. Then B.B. changed course and they veered to the right, coming so close to the top of Crooked Canyon that Sarah’s feet knocked some rocks loose. Once they were in the open, B.B. really flapped his wings and they rose even higher into the dark blue sky.

  Sarah gasped at the view. The Moonlit Sea lay behind them, stretching out for what seemed like forever. Far back on her left, she could just make out the dark square of the Black Iron Prison.

  “Which way?” B.B. yelled above the keening wind.

  Sarah faced forward and pointed along the length of Crooked Canyon. “Follow the canyon,” she shouted.

  “No need to shout,” B.B. yelled back at her. “My ears are very sensitive.”

  She had forgotten learning in school how sensitive bats’ ears were. “Sorry,” she said, more quietly this time. B.B. nodded and flapped them still higher. Now Sarah could even see the Forest of Shadows, far beyond the Black Iron Prison. All at once, she realized that B.B. could just take her straight there, back to the place where she had come through. She needn’t worry about how far above the ground the hole was—B.B. could fly her right in. And if the sentinels or Lefty tried to get her, B.B. could fly her out of their reach. The only one she had to worry about was Mr. Ink, since he could fly, too. But he wouldn’t be looking for her there. As far as she knew, he was still at the Black Iron Prison, waiting to see what the guards were going to do with her and Jeb.

  She began to wonder if they had discovered she was missing yet. Edgar had said they would send everyone to search for her. She suddenly became sure they would look for her in the Green Desert, since they knew that was where she and Jeb had been headed before Mr. Ink caught them. So maybe she should go back to the Forest of Shadows. She worried about Jeb and Edgar, but she knew the most important thing was stopping Balthazat. Especially since he was the only one who could tell her how to stop from changing into a sentinel. Besides, she wasn’t even sure she would be able to convince the blemmyes to start a new rebellion. “Oh, dear,” she whispered.

  “What is it?” B.B. said.

  “I think we better change direction.”

  “Which way?”

  “That way,” Sarah said, and pointed left. “To the Forest of Shadows.”

  B.B. nodded and lifted his right wing. They careened into a sharp turn and Sarah tightened her grip.

  As they flew past the Black Iron Prison, Sarah saw a door open and a thin line of squat guards march out. They were so far below that the blue torches they clutched looked like tiny matches. She knew they were searching for her. And from the looks of it, they were headed toward Crooked Canyon and the Green Desert. She heaved a sigh of relief, sure now that she had made the right decision.

  On they flew, across the River of Moonlight and deep into the Forest of Shadows. Sarah asked B.B. to take them lower. When she spotted the clearing and Balthazat’s cabin, she pointed B.B. toward the face of the black mountains.

  As they got closer, Sarah frantically searched the ground for Lefty or the sentinel, but didn’t spot any sign of either of them. She knew she should have been relieved, but she actually grew more worried. Not knowing where they were seemed much worse than finding them waiting for her.

  “Take us down, please,” she said, and B.B. folded his wings back. They plunged toward the ground, and at the last possible moment, B.B. unfolded his wings and brought them to what seemed a complete stop in midair, before setting them down softly. The rapid descent had so frightened Sarah that she hadn’t had time to direct B.B. to a close landing position, so when she looked up, she saw that they were still some distance from the mountainside. “This way,” she said urgently.

  She took off, her feet kicking up black sand as B.B. waddled behind for a moment, then flapped his wings and flew after her. They reached the mountainside at about the same time. B.B. landed next to her and glanced around.

  “What are we doing here?” he asked.

  Sarah pointed at the hole in the rock. “Do you see that hole?” she asked. B.B. followed her finger with his eyes and nodded. “I need you to get me up there.”

  “Sure thing,” he said, and motioned for her to climb onto his back. Instead of flying, he used his sharp claws and the hooks at the tops of his wings to crawl up the rocks to the ledge just under the hole. Sarah climbed off and peered into the darkness. Now that she was here, she wasn’t sure what to do next. After all, she had completely ditched the original plan.

  “What’s in there?” B.B. asked.

  “My house,” Sarah said.

  “You live in a cave, too?” B.B. said with a smile. “Can I come with you?”

  Sarah explained to him as quickly as she could that this wasn’t a normal cave, that it was more like a hallway to a world very different from Scotopia, and that she had to go there and do some very important work. “And I have to go alone,” she said.

  “But when will you help me find my name?” B.B. asked. “You said you would.”

  Sarah nodded. “And I will, I promise. Until then, I need you to keep helping me.”

  “How?”

  “I need you to wait here—right here—until I come back. Can you do that?”

  “Sure,” B.B. said.

  Sarah smiled. “Good. I’ll be back as fast as I can,” she said, then gave B.B. a hug and climbed into the dark tunnel.

  As Sarah crept back into the secret room behind the bookcase, her mind raced with a hundred trains of thought. She wondered if Edgar’s theory was true. Had time stood still while she had been gone? Or had it continued normally because she had brought Balthazat through? Had Balthazat figured out where the journal was? Had he tricked Billy into helping him?

  She pushed through the darkness until she felt the back of the bookcase. Then s
he pressed against it gently until it slid out from the wall. When there was enough space, she peeked through to make sure the coast was clear. She was about to go into her room when she realized she was still holding the glass case with Jeb’s face in it. She knew she couldn’t take it with her. How could she explain that to anyone? Carefully, she set the case down against the wall, then slipped into her bedroom and pushed the bookcase back into position.

  She let out a deep breath and looked around. At first she thought everything was exactly as she had left it, but then she saw the clock and she knew Edgar was right. It was 2:37 p.m. Time had continued normally and she had been gone for more than four and a half hours. Feeling sick with the thought of what might have happened, she rushed across the room, flung the door open, and ran downstairs.

  She found her mother in the kitchen, standing at the sink washing potatoes, a red dish towel slung over one shoulder. “What do you think you’re doing, young lady? Your father told you to stay in your room until dinner.” Her mother looked at the clock over the stove. “And that’s not for more than two hours.”

  Sarah stopped short and stared at her mom, absolutely speechless. She didn’t know what to say. A part of her wanted to tell her everything, top to bottom, start to finish. But even as her mouth opened and the first words started to form on her lips, she knew she couldn’t. If Sarah told her about secret doors and talking cats, Mom certainly wouldn’t believe her. In fact, she would probably send her back to her room for the rest of the day before she called a doctor to come over and find out what was wrong with her. Then Sarah considered that maybe she should instead tell her mom there was a secret room behind the bookcase and get her to go inside that way, but she doubted that would work, either. Mom didn’t like small spaces and she was very afraid of spiders. Sarah was sure Mom would refuse to go behind the bookcase for those two reasons and then Sarah would be stuck again. She might be able to convince her dad to go in there, but he would probably tell her he couldn’t do it right away and would promise instead to do it tomorrow, which would certainly be too late.