The Owl Keeper (29 page)

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times Mrs. Crumlin had given him poisoned chocolate drinks. "It comes from your town, Cavernstone Grey: 'The finest chocolates in the country,' as the advertisement goes." Vivian's eyes seemed to sparkle. "I've never been to Cavernstone Grey, however, so I can't think how our paths would have crossed." Reaching into her robe, she pulled out her glasses.

My mom and dad could have made this, Max thought sadly, popping the chocolate into his mouth. It tasted sweet and smoky. "My parents work at Cavernstone Hall," he said, suddenly homesick. "That's the factory that makes these chocolates." If only he knew whether or not they were safe. He worried that his mother had been punished because he'd used her smart card to get inside The Ruins.

Vivian slipped on her glasses. Max took one look at the wire frames and half-moon lenses and realized where he'd seen her before. "Wavy Gray!" he cried. "You're the lady on the Cavernstone Grey Hot Cocoa carton!"

Vivian's eyes widened in surprise. "Why, yes, I am--though very few people know it." She handed him another chocolate. "The artist who did the illustration was an inmate at the prison where I worked. Very talented, he was. Is it a good likeness, do you think?"

"Oh yes!" Max replied. He wondered if Vivian Ashe knew that there were two different kinds of hot cocoa. Not wanting to upset her, he decided not to mention it just yet.

"Why have you come here?" she asked. "Was it to find the silver owls?"

"We're looking for the Owl Keeper," said Max simply. "Rose

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and I have to deliver something important to a tower in an ancient city called Silvern. Have you heard of it? The Sages and silver owls fought the Alazarin Oro there hundreds of years ago, but now the Dark has come again. Gran always told me that an Owl Keeper would appear to join the silver owls and Sages, to defeat the evil forces."

"Ah, your grandmother taught you well," said Vivian, nodding with approval. "Silvern was the holy city of the Sages. But centuries after that terrible battle, Port Sunlight was built over the ruins of Silvern. You are in Silvern, Max; this is the place you've been searching for."

"Port Sunlight is
Silvern?
The battle happened
here?"
he cried. A thrill of excitement rushed through him. Then he'd come to the right place after all!

"The fulfillment of the Silver Prophecy is what the High Echelon fears most." Vivian knelt and picked up a black leather bellows, pointing it at the embers and pumping. "That is why the High Echelon has spread the idea that the owls are extinct," she explained as she fanned the flames.

Her words sent a chill through Max. "I knew they weren't extinct, but are they really trying to kill them?" he asked. "My gran told me that the silver owls have strong magic. They'd be able to protect themselves, right?"

Vivian stared into the glowing fire. "The silver owls are powerful, it's true, but they've lost something that was integral to their very being. You see, the silver owls have gone silent. They've lost the ability to sing their magic songs."

"Why can't the Owl Keeper help the silver owls?" asked Max,

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his heart thumping. Though, the more he thought about it, the more different the silver owls he'd met earlier seemed from his own. They were far less vibrant than his little owl. They were tough and scrappy, and they'd carried him and Rose on their wings, yet all the while they'd been subdued--and eerily silent.

"I am no Sage or seeress," said Vivian slowly. "I cannot say if the Owl Keeper can help the owls or not."

"But that's the reason we came! The silver owls have to carry out the Prophecy!" cried Max, panicked to think it might not happen after all. "Listen, I have to talk to the Owl Keeper! I have to go there right away!"

"There is a keeper, but"--Vivian gazed at him over the half-moon lenses--"Miranda knows the way to the owl tower. She and the keeper are rather good friends."

"Miranda?" said Max, disappointed. He couldn't think of a more unlikely guide. "She's just a goofy little kid! She thinks the owls are ghosties!"

Vivian chuckled. "Max, you know the silver owls are not ghosts! They protect this ancient city and the people who took refuge here. They are smoke and fire and stars and wind, all rolled into one. You might say they're heaven and earth and every brave heart that ever lived combined. They are, in a nutshell, hope."

Max stared into the flames, lost in the mystery of the owls, wondering at their goodness and fearlessness. What a thing it was, he thought, to live in a time such as this.

Vivian leaned forward, staring at him intently. "I understand you are a Night Seer. Your friend Rose mentioned it to my husband. May I see your tattoo?"

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Max sighed, feeling deeply irritated with Rose. She couldn't keep a secret if her life depended on it. "I guess so," he mumbled, not wanting to say no to this fascinating woman who was the real Wavy Gray.

Vivian pushed a clump of his brown hair to one side and prodded his neck with her fingertips. He hated that tattoo. For him it would always be a grim reminder of the skræks and the High Echelon, and the horrible future they'd planned for him.

"There's no tattoo here," she murmured at last.

"It's a yellow sun," said Max. "You can't miss it." Maybe she needs new glasses, he told himself, maybe she should trade the half-moons for whole ones.

"What I see," said Vivian, "is the outline of an owl."

He gasped. "The Mark of the Owl?" Max reached back and felt a raised shape on his neck. A delicious shiver went through him. "It's gone!" he whispered. "The sun tattoo's gone!" It was like a terrible curse being lifted.

"Why are you surprised? After all, you fell through the silver owls and, as you know, they possess strange, unknowable powers." Eyes dancing, Vivian offered him the last bitter chocolate from Cavernstone Grey. "They have given back to you the owl mark you were born with. You carry once again the Night Seer's symbol of generations past."

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CHAPTER THIRTY

[Image: The tower.]

Max raced upstairs to the sixth floor and burst into Rose's room, where she stood braiding Miranda's hair. He saw the dog dozing on a tatty rug. Miranda's braids were coming out crooked, but the little girl didn't seem to notice. Helios awoke and padded over to Max. His fur gleamed, as if someone had given him a good brushing.

"My sun tattoo's gone!" shouted Max. "The High Echelon doesn't own me anymore!" He felt somehow stronger, more centered, more
himself.
Helios sprang up, licking his ear with a kind of doggy happiness. "And the Owl Keeper's here, Rose! So come on, we've got to--"

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For the first time since entering the room, he actually looked at Rose. Suddenly tongue-tied, all Max could do was stare. Rose looked unfamiliar and oddly girly in a clean white filmy dress. Beneath its lace hem were two freshly bandaged knees. On her feet were white shoes, paper-thin, with sequins spattered across the tops. Her sweet proud face was shining and her silken hair fell in waves of pale fire.

"What?" said Rose. Her voice sounded softer. "What are you talking about?"

She didn't look like the Rose he knew, who had mussed-up hair, scabby knees and a dirty, torn overcoat two sizes too big. It struck him that this girl was, well,
pretty.

"Vivian said the silver owls zapped my tattoo," Max muttered at last, jamming his hands in his pockets and looking at the floor. "They used their magic when they brought us down." He touched the back of his neck, tracing the owl birthmark with his forefinger. "I have my owl mark back!"

Rose spun around, nearly knocking over Miranda. "What about me? It wouldn't be fair if they erased your tattoo and not mine!" She lifted her hair and searched for it. "Miranda, quick!" She lowered her head. "Do you see a yellow diamond on my neck?"

"No," answered the girl. "I doesn't see a diamond. I sees a owlie."

Smiling, Rose looked up at Max. "The Mark of the Owl! I've got mine back, too!"

Miranda skipped in a circle, then skipped over to Max and shyly offered her hand. Rose took her other hand and, laughing, they

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danced in ragged, earthy joy, Helios leaping beside them, until they all became so dizzy that they collapsed, breathless, on the floor.

Rose stood up first. "You seem different, Max," she said, brushing off her dress.

Max pulled Miranda to her feet. "How do you mean,
different?"
How clearly, he wondered, was she seeing him?

He pushed a lock of brown hair from his eyes. After all, he was wearing his same old mail-order boots and jacket, and he badly needed a haircut. He wasn't spiffed up the way she was.

"Something about the shape of you, Max. You're standing extra straight and tall, with your shoulders pulled back, not slumped over like before. Yeah, you're different."

Max mulled over her words. He supposed she had a point. It occurred to him that he felt straighter and taller on the
inside
as well. And braver, too.

"Rose?" he said quietly. "Can you see me?"

She shrugged and looked down at the floor. "Sort of. It comes and goes, and sometimes I just see shadows."

Max felt a sudden tightness in his throat. "Oh, Rose," he said, throwing his arms around her.

"I don't want to lose my sight," she whispered in his ear. "Help me, Max."

"I will. I promise." Max gritted his teeth, trying to hold back his tears. He knew crying wasn't going to help Rose, but maybe the Owl Keeper could do something for her.

"Get your coats," he said to Rose and Miranda. "We're going to the Owl Keeper."

"Now?" asked Rose, wiping away tears with the back of her hand.

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Miranda twirled around, braids sticking straight out. "I knows, I knows, I knows," she sang, "I knows where the Owl Keeper lives!"

"You do?" said Rose. "Will you take us?"

"Yes, I will, I will--" Helios pranced over to lick her face and Miranda tipped over in a fit of giggles.

Through a window of fractured glass, Max could see snow falling outside. He heard a distant rumble that sounded like thunder. Reaching into his pocket, he tugged out Gran's shell. There was no sign of Dr. Tredegar's blood on it. Maybe the silver owls had used their magic on the shell, too.

His thoughts turned to Gran, and he felt a deep sadness wondering if he'd ever see her again. What about his mother and father, toiling away in the chocolate factory? And Rose's parents, imprisoned in faraway cells? What about his silver owl, why hadn't she returned? And Rose's eyes--had they been damaged permanently?

Max knew that not all mysteries could be solved, and not all stories had happy endings, but the shell he held in his hand glowed with a dreamy light, easing his pain, giving him the tiniest shred of hope.

At eleven o'clock that morning, Max, Rose and Miranda set off from the hotel, carrying backpacks filled with poppy seed cakes, goat cheese and a flask of cider. Feeling somewhat apprehensive, Max raced with the others along the frost-covered streets, Helios yipping at their heels. Snow gusted, whirling around them. They ran on, unafraid of the thunder booming in the distance. A brisk wind struck their faces, and every few steps, Max whistled for his owl.

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In courtyards and along the streets, tall trees rushed up from the earth, waving skeletal branches. The ground was cracked and frozen, the buildings half-buried in ice, yet to Max the city felt remarkably alive. He looked around in wonder, marveling, as they threaded past makeshift settlements and blazing fires, trudging past people in stalls hawking quince muffins and fire-roasted chestnuts. Until now he'd had no idea that the city was so populated! Shaggy animals bleated, causing Helios to stay close to Rose, refusing to leave her side.

Families gathered in noisy clumps, warming themselves beside open fires, roasting meat on huge spits, waving and shouting as the children ran past. A stately long-legged creature with a swishing tail and braided mane trotted by, pulling a caravan piled high with suitcases.

"A horse!" cried Max, astounded by its size and elegance. He had only ever seen horses in books. Port Sunlight, he was beginning to realize, wasn't dead at all.

Miranda skipped confidently along in her white fur-lined cape and high-buttoned boots. Max thought she looked like a time traveler from another century. Twirling, Miranda ushered Max and Rose along a narrow street that wound out of the city. Max called again for his owl, but there was no reply. Leaving the houses and buildings behind, they crossed a road covered with snow.

"Your grandparents let you come all this way alone?" Max asked Miranda. She seemed too little to be on her own.

"I comes with my gramma." Miranda skittered across the ice and called back to them. "Hurry! We's almost there!" Clambering

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onto a stone wall, she crab-walked out of sight. "I sees it! The tower!"

Max and Rose followed Miranda over the wall, dropping into knee-deep snow on the other side. Impatient, Miranda hopped up and down a few yards ahead of them.

"Come!" she called, waving her arms. Barking wildly, Helios bounded after her.

Through a tunnel of pale trees, Max saw a cobbled path glimmering with ice and snow. He and Rose plunged through the snow and onto the path. Branches bent over them, frosted with crystals, as they trudged across the glazed cobblestones.

Max looked up and saw the smoky outline of a tree and, behind it, a tower. The air smelled of chimney smoke.

"The owl tower!" he breathed.

The tree was ancient and wide and scarred. It seemed to burst out of the frozen ground, silver branches waving at the sky. The tree reminded Max of his beloved owl tree back home, though it was a much larger version.

"Look at the leaves, Rose! They're silver!"

"Silver leaves on a winter tree!" Rose's hushed voice floated over. "Max, I have a feeling about this place. I think it's enchanted."

True enough, he thought. Nothing about the place was the least bit ordinary. As they neared the tower, the silver leaves shuddered in the wind, lifting off the branches and into the air. Astonished, Max watched them scatter in all directions. They weren't leaves at all.

"Silver owls!" he breathed. He watched the owls fly above the