Oracles of Delphi Keep (11 page)

All around them the activity continued as several mattresses were lined up and the children were laid down for the night, using up the few blankets and pillows to have survived the beast’s attack. Ian eventually gave up his mattress to Theo and one of the younger girls. He found a quiet corner to prop himself up in and leaned his head back on the wall, finally dropping off to an uncomfortable but deep sleep.

Sometime in the middle of the night, he awoke from his shivery, cold sleep to the hushed tones of adult whispers. The earl, it seemed, had returned with Perry and Thatcher, and Ian could just make out what they were saying in the
front hallway. “… followed the trail to the edge of the cliffs but we lost it in the thick grass there. At first light, after we’ve moved the children safely to Castle Dover, we should round up as many men as we can and give the entire area a proper search,” the earl was saying.

“What if the creature comes back tonight?” asked Madam Scargill, her voice quivering ever so slightly, and Ian shivered, not just with cold, but with that terrifying prospect.

“We’ll be ready for it,” said the earl confidently. “We’ll rotate the men guarding the doors. Landis, you, Freddy, and Charles continue your vigils at the doors for another few hours or so, then wake us no later than three a.m., and Thatcher, Perry, and I will relieve you. Masters Goodwyn, you two get some sleep near the men you’ll be relieving, but have your rifles handy should the beast come back.”

“Right,” said several men in unison, and Ian heard the shuffle of feet as they moved off to their positions.

“How are the children?” asked the earl after another few moments.

“As well as can be expected,” said Madam Dimbleby “They’ve had a very frightful evening, and I’m sure there will be quite a few nightmares to deal with in the coming weeks. Thankfully, none of the children save Ian, Theo, and Carl actually saw the beast. The rest only heard it. We’ve tried to salvage as much as we can from the wreckage. There’s very little left in working condition, I’m afraid, so we most appreciate you bringing these blankets and pillows over, my lord.”

“The least I could do, Maggie,” said the earl. “I’ve got my staff readying some rooms for the children at Castle Dover.
We’ll move them there at first light, when it’s safe, and they can stay until we return the keep to its proper order. And you two are not to worry about what cannot be salvaged. I will replace everything that was broken. You’ll have to remember that it could have been much worse,” he finished gravely.

“Yes, it certainly could,” said Madam Dimbleby. “Come, Gertrude, let’s make these brave men some tea for their watch and cover the children with the blankets, shall we?”

Ian listened as the two women moved off and quiet followed. He was quite troubled with the guilt he was feeling about leading the beast to the keep and he lay awake for a long time. He did, however, try to feign sleep when Madam Dimbleby came into the parlor to cover some of the children who hadn’t been given a blanket earlier. He had to smirk when he felt her lay a blanket over him and whisper, “I know you’re still awake, Master Wigby.”

Ian opened his eyes. “It’s not easy to sleep sitting up,” he admitted.

“Here,” she said, gently leaning him forward. “I’ve given all the other pillows away, but I did manage to find one of the sofa pillows in the wreckage. It’s small but it might help.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” he said, attempting another smile.

“Ian,” she said, and something about the way she was holding herself filled him with concern. “I want to apologize to you and Theo.”

Ian was shocked right down to his socks. “Pardon me?” he said. “Madam Dimbleby, whatever could
you
be sorry for?”

“Theo came to me this afternoon and told me the two of
you had spotted some sort of wild dog out along the cliffs. I’ll admit, I was attending to supper and I didn’t pay her much heed. If only I’d alerted Landis and maybe someone from Castle Dover …”

“Madam,” Ian said, his insides filling with guilt, “if anyone is sorry, it should be me.” He was about to explain further but in the corner of the room one of the girls began to wail in her sleep.

“Oh, my,” said Madam Dimbleby as she got gingerly to her feet. “Another nightmare. Get some sleep, Ian.” She stood to leave. “We’ll talk more in the morning.” She softly swept his hair and regarded him with kind eyes before hurrying over to calm the crying girl.

Ian knew that eventually he’d have to set the record straight. He wondered with great remorse if, after he told everyone the truth about the beast and the tunnel, Madam Dimbleby would lose that look of motherly gentleness she always had whenever she glanced his way.

The next morning Ian blinked blearily as he awoke. His shoulder throbbed terribly and the rest of his body felt bruised and stiff. Theo was already up and helping with some of the younger children who were also awake. “How are you feeling?” she asked when she noticed that he’d opened his eyes.

“Awful,” he said, rubbing his shoulder. “I feel like I’ve been hit by a train.”

“The earl has gone to Castle Dover to get more motor-cars. He’s moving us all to the castle!” she said excitedly. “I’ve never stayed at Castle Dover before.”

Ian nodded dully. He felt tired, achy, and out of sorts, and he wasn’t quite sure if he was hungry. “I spent several nights there once,” he said. Although he was a frequent visitor to the castle’s library, overnight visits were rare. “The fourth year I was here, one of the pipes burst upstairs and we all spent Christmas there.”

“What was it like?” Theo asked.

“Big,” Ian said. “And you can’t touch anything.”

Theo gave him a quizzical look, but before she could ask him more questions, they heard the growing rumble of several engines charging toward the keep. The earl’s personal fleet of motorcars came up the drive and pulled to a stop in front of the demolished door.

Most of the children had heard the approaching vehicles and were now rushing to the doorway, chattering with excitement. After a moment the earl waded through the mob of excited children into the front hallway, patting several small heads on his way to the foot of the stairwell.

“Good morning, ladies,” he said to Madams Dimbleby and Scargill, who had emerged from the kitchen at his arrival.

The headmistresses each gave a small curtsy before turning their attention to the children. “Everyone please settle down,” instructed Madam Scargill. “The earl has an announcement.”

By this time, Ian and Theo had joined the rest of the crowd and stood anxiously by the banister of the stairway. Carl, who’d been near the door when the earl had entered, squeezed his way over to stand next to them.

When everyone had settled into silence, the earl began in his booming voice. “Children of Delphi Keep, we will be shuttling you to Castle Dover, where you will be served a
warm breakfast this morning and have the opportunity to nap if you were unable to get a good night’s rest last evening. Our plan is to house you at my estate until we can return the keep to an inhabitable state. You will be quite comfortable at Castle Dover, so not to worry.

“I am asking that in the next ten minutes you gather yourselves and whatever small personal articles you’ve managed to recover from this wreckage and proceed into the courtyard, where I’d like you to queue up according to height. We will be chauffeuring the smallest children to the estate first, the older ones next.” The earl finished by smiling winningly When no one moved, he said, “Off you go, then!”

Immediately, the group began to scurry about, grabbing the few possessions they could find. Ian was ready to bolt up-stairs and look through the boys’ dormitory for some article of clothing or other that might have survived when he caught the dejected faces of Carl and Theo. “There’s nothing left of mine,” Theo said sadly.

“I’m wearing the only belongings I have,” said Carl, looking at the ground and shuffling his feet.

Ian’s heart panged with guilt. “I’m sure there’s nothing left in my room either,” he said, thinking that he’d already lost his most valuable possessions—the knife, the compass, and the pocket torch—back in the beast’s tunnel. “I suppose it’s best not to look if I don’t want to be disappointed.”

Theo eyed him skeptically. “You sure?” she asked. “I mean, isn’t there
anything
you might want to nab while you’ve got the chance?”

Ian realized that Theo was secretly referring to the box hidden in the east tower, but one look at Carl’s sad face told
him that if he returned with anything, it would only make the newest orphan feel worse. And what if one of the other children saw him with it? Madam Scargill would likely confiscate it again and he’d be even more hard-pressed the second time to try to retrieve it without her noticing.

He decided that the box was safe for now in its hiding place and he could collect it later, after they’d all returned to the keep. “I’m sure,” he answered. “Come on, then. Let’s go outside and queue up like the earl asked us.”

Ian led the way outside, excited to see the beautiful shiny automobiles lining the front drive. At the front of the queue was the earl’s personal favorite, a beautiful canary yellow Packard Speedster with a black cloth convertible top.

“Blimey,” Carl said when he spotted it. “She’s gorgeous!”

“The earl likes to ride around with the top down in the summer,” said Theo.

“Someday I’ll own one of those,” Ian murmured dreamily.

“Oh yeah?” Carl said, turning to him with interest. “Where do you expect to get the money for something as grand as that, then?”

Ian blushed. He believed firmly that one day he’d be a wealthy explorer, able to afford the finer things in life, but no one except Theo was privy to his daydreams. Luckily, he was saved from further explanation by the appearance of a horde of children on the front steps. “Come now,” said Madam Scargill, clapping her hands to gain their attention. “Queue up according to height so that we might expedite the trip to Castle Dover.”

Ian left Theo in the middle of the quickly forming line of children and walked toward the back with Carl, who found
his place two in front of Ian. Behind Ian were only two others: Rachel Albright, a girl who was impossibly tall for her eleven years, and Searle, who made sure to give Ian a poke in his sore shoulder as he passed by.

The earl came outside as the last of the children were taking their places, and gave a nod to the many chauffeurs and helpers standing beside his fleet. The men then began to open car doors.

Meanwhile, Madam Scargill and Madam Dimbleby shuffled up and down the line of children, bending low to whisper in their ears, “You must be on your best behavior at the castle. No roughhousing or carrying on, and remember not to touch anything!”

From the back of the queue, Ian noticed that Perry and Thatcher had also come to assist with the shuttling of children. “Good morning,” Thatcher said warmly to him. “How’s the shoulder?”

“Fine, sir,” Ian lied. “It barely hurts at all.”

Thatcher raised a skeptical eyebrow but flashed Ian a broad smile. “Right,” he said. “Well, even though it feels fine, that sling should stay on for a day or two.”

“Yes, sir,” Ian answered, grateful for the excuse to favor his left side a bit longer.

The earl had walked the queue of children and came to stand with Perry and Thatcher. While the small children were being loaded into the first group of motorcars, the earl and the new schoolmasters spoke in low tones that Ian strained to hear. The men discussed how to go about hunting the beast.

“I’ve sent out the word,” the earl was saying. “There is a
hunting party forming as we speak. Anyone able to carry and shoot a gun will be meeting us at the castle in an hour. From there we shall attempt to track the beast and kill it once and for all.”

“What if we’re unable to pick up the trail?” Perry asked worriedly. “Those cliffs are heavy with vegetation and caves. Even something as large as that creature could disappear into one of the outlying caves and not be seen again until it kills an unsuspecting passerby.”

“Please, sir,” said Ian, not able to keep his silence even though he knew that this was the moment he would likely get into terrible trouble. “I think I know where the beast may be hiding.”

All adult eyes and a few of the surrounding children’s shifted to Ian, who suddenly felt very self-conscious. “Did I hear you say that you know where the beast is hiding?” asked the earl, stepping close to him.

Ian gulped. “Yes, my lord,” he said bravely. “I believe I know where its lair is. I believe the beast lives in a specific tunnel near the cliffs.”

“And how do you know
that
, Master Wigby?” asked Madam Scargill from just down the row of children, her hands firmly planted on her hips. Ian jumped at her voice and mentally cursed her sharp hearing.

“Er …,” he said, struggling to come up with an explanation while Searle giggled wickedly behind him.

Madam Scargill marched down the row of remaining children. “Yes, please explain how you know this, Master Wigby, especially as it has been expressly explained to you that you are
forbidden
to go anywhere near those tunnels.”

Ian gulped again. He knew now that there was no avoiding it—he was in trouble for sure—but as his mind raced, he realized that there was no help for it. Lives were at stake and he’d have to fess up. “Yesterday, Theo and I may have gotten a little closer to the edge of the cliffs than we realized, and we were about to turn back when we discovered a small hole in the ground that opened up to a large cavern and a series of tunnels.”

Out the corner of his eye, he saw Theo glare at him, so he quickly added, “Theo, of course, begged me not to go into the cavern, but I wouldn’t listen, and I dropped through to take a quick look.”

Madam Scargill opened her mouth, obviously prepared to give Ian a thorough tongue-lashing, but the earl put his hand on her arm and said gently, “Let the boy speak, Gertrude. I’d rather find the creature’s lair than worry about the explorations of the lad, just yet.”

Ian cleared his throat, unsure if that meant he was in serious trouble or not. Still, he went on. “The cavern fed into a tunnel that led far underground, and I followed it for a while before I came to a second large cavern. That’s where I got the box, Madam,” he admitted to Madam Scargill. “It was set in the dirt there.” Madam Scargill’s eyes narrowed at him, but the earl’s hand on her shoulder prevented her from telling Ian what she thought of him at that moment.