The Serpent’s Curse. Tony Abbott

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СКАЧАТЬ small, windowless room. Rosemary flicked on the lights and, after much finger motion, unlocked a glass-topped display case.

      “Despite these … scytale staffs being, in many cases, also used as … weapons, they’re old, and … we must consider them extremely fragile. Rather … like me …”

      Wade didn’t know whether to laugh or not, but he knew to wait.

      Five breaths later, she added, “… dieval manuscripts.”

      Then Rosemary waved her hand over the contents of the case like a game-show hostess. She was right to do so. As Julian had promised, the library’s collection of scytale staffs was special. They were obviously ancient, and all were roughly between five and ten inches long. Two were carved in thick ebony, one appeared to be cast in bronze, and the others were shaped of ivory or wood. Each was nestled in its own formfitting compartment and labeled by date. The earliest was from the sixth century BCE—“Before the Common … Era,” Rosemary explained—the most recent from Germany in the eleventh century. The smallest staff was little bigger around than a pencil, while the largest bore a circumference similar to the handle on a tennis racket.

      “Now show me your rib …,” Rosemary asked Becca alarmingly, then finished with “… bon.”

      Becca removed the ribbon carefully from her pocket, unrolled it, and laid it flat on the table.

      The curator frowned through her spectacles as she examined the ribbon. “About a … hundred letters?”

      “Ninety,” Becca said, glancing at Julian, who nodded.

      “Ah, just … like … me …”

      Wade waited six, seven breaths, but that turned out to be the end of her sentence.

      Rosemary tugged either end of the ribbon lightly. “The fabric is silk. Without … running tests, I would guess it was woven sometime in the fifteenth or sixteenth century.”

      “That fits our date,” Darrell said.

      The curator raised a finger as if to shush him. “Also, it doesn’t … stretch very much. This is good. It means we’ll have better luck finding an exact fit. Let’s start small … and go up from there.” Then, chuckling to herself, she added, “The narrower the staff, the larger the mess …”

      Two breaths.

      “… age.”

      Rosemary took up the narrowest of the staffs, more of a dowel than anything else, with five equal sides. Pinching the top end of the ribbon against one of the sides, she gently spiraled it around the dowel like the stripe of a candy cane, making sure that the letters sat next to one another. The first line of the message read:

       TGOSNOTSTPHID

      Which, because of the peculiar wiring of his brain, Darrell said aloud before anyone could stop him. “‘To go snot stupid.’ No, wait. ‘Togo’s not stupid.’ Is that the dog from The Wizard of Oz? Who’s Togo?”

      “You are,” said Wade, glaring at his stepbrother. “And we’re not sure what language it’s in, remember that. Copernicus knew several. Either way, that’s obviously not the right staff. Can we try a bigger one, to spread out the letters—”

      “Keep your pant … s on, young man,” Rosemary growled at Wade, who she suddenly seemed to like less than she liked Darrell. “I shall choo … se what we do next. And I choose … a bigger one, to spread out the letters more.” She returned the first dowel to the case, then selected a thicker one and carefully wrapped the ribbon around it. It produced the following sequence of letters:

       TOSMNHTTHLDE

      “That’s not a word,” said Lily. “Another one?”

      The curator’s wobbly cheeks turned red, and Wade wondered if she would explode and what that might look like. He stepped back. Rose … mary waved a hand in front of her face as if to cool off, then pulled out a staff with ten sides and a diameter of about one and a half inches. Wrapping the ribbon around it produced the following first three lines in English:

       TOTHELAND

       OFENDLESS

       SNOWTOBEG

      “To the land of endless snow …” Becca gasped. “That’s it! Yay, we found it!”

      Rosemary’s face was purple when she whirled it around to Becca’s. “Who found it, dear? Did we … find it? Because I rather th … ink I found it.”

      “You did, Rosemary,” said Julian. “As usual, you are being tremendously awesome. My friends here, as grateful as they are, are simply super anxious to know what the rest of the message says. Forgive them, please.”

      “Dear … boy!” Rosemary said, pausing to pinch Julian’s cheeks a few times. “Here then … is the whole th … ing.”

       TOTHELAND

       OFENDLESS

       SNOWTOBEG

       THEATHOSG

       REEKCONCE

       ALTHEUNBO

       UNDDOUBLE

       EYEDBEAST

       FROMDEMON

       MASTERAVH

      Wade drew out the notebook containing the major clues they’d discovered so far and, after much scribbling, broke down the text into individual words.

       TO THE LAND OF ENDLESS SNOW TO BEG THE ATHOS GREEK CONCEAL THE UNBOUND DOUBLE EYED BEAST FROM DEMON MASTER AVH

      And there it was, a riddle to the location of the second Guardian and the second relic.

      “We’re all thinking it, right?” said Becca. “‘Demon Master AVH’?”

      “Albrecht von Hohenzollern, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order in the fifteen hundreds,” said Darrell. “I like that Copernicus finally called him what he was.”

      Wade set his father’s college notebook on the table, closed his eyes, and tried to think. Land of endless snow, Athos Greek, conceal the unbound … double-eyed beast … double-eyed …

      “If I close my eyes … for that long … people think I’m dead!” Rosemary cackled.

      “No, no,” Wade said, opening his eyes. “It’s just that … double-eyed beast describes the object we’re looking for, and it’s based on a constellation.” From his backpack, he took out and unfolded the celestial map his uncle Henry had given him.

      “Oh, there are several star charts in our collection,” Rosemary said, “but that’s a very nice one.”

      “Thanks.” СКАЧАТЬ