Matt’s eyes fluttered open as the door to his room creaked. Bennet poked his head through the door. His dark curly hair had grown almost a full inch, as he had.
“You going to sleep all day, Maps?”
“Hey, Cat.”
Matt stretched, sitting up. ‘Cat’ was the nickname the others had given him because of his quick reflexes. But the name really stuck when he ended up chasing off a mountain lion with a stick. They had been exploring in the hills when the giant cat emerged from the trees. He was the only one to take action while the other three boys stood frozen.
Matt yawned and stretched. “See any mountain lions lately?” he said. “I see you made it in last night with no trouble.”
Nolan pushed Bennet into the room and popped his head through the doorway. “Cool place, ain’t it?” he said animatedly.
His thin frame was dwarfed behind Bennet.
Luca pushed Nolan as he strolled into the room. “Still aren’t eating your vegetables, eh, Pops?”
‘Pops’ was the nickname they gave Nolan the first time the boys met, as he had the unique ability to pop his arm in and out of socket. It didn’t help that his disheveled, sandy-colored hair and glasses sometimes made him look like a little old man.
Nolan crinkled his nose. “Hey, being small comes in handy.”
Bennet smiled. “Yep, you need those dainty little fingers to trim all your plants.”
“I could only bring five. The Dracaena, the Staghorn Fern, the Ivy, and my succulent garden,” Nolan said, frowning. “It was like leaving children behind.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure a stray mouse family back home will think they stumbled into the Amazon,” Luca said, chuckling.
It was true. Matt had been in Nolan’s room before he moved many times, and each time, it looked more and more like a jungle. Strange plants of all sorts of species, and even some carnivorous ones. Matt wondered if they ever thought about taking a bite out of Nolan while he slept.
Just then, Matt’s mom yelled from down the hall that breakfast was ready. Matt threw some pants on and followed the other three boys out of the room. They hurried down the hall, turning left at the foyer, and then down another hall. At the end of the hall stood an over ten-foot arched stone doorway and a set of double wooden doors. Pushing through, Luca led them into a massive dining room with a lavishly decorated table that stretched from one end of the room to the other.
Silver plates and goblets were spaced around the table, with several sets of cutlery and utensils at each setting. A gem-laden candelabra towered as the centerpiece.
Luca’s dad Thiago, Tam, and Jenna emerged from a side entrance to the dining room bringing bowls of eggs, sausage, and biscuits, and three crystal pitchers of apple juice.
Matt’s mom followed, carrying a large carafe of steaming coffee and a tray of cups.
“Sit, sit, everyone. Sorry about all the fancy decor,” she said. “We can see if we can rustle up some more practical dishes later.”
“I kind of like it,” Bennet’s older sister Kendis said, picking up a glass goblet.
“Me too,” Jenna beamed, finding a spot next to Nolan’s younger sister, Jordan.
“Yes, please let us use these dishes. I find it enchanting!” Jordan said, prompting a hug from Jenna. The two girls hadn’t seen each other in quite a while, and were giggling loudly about everything. The display, of course, elicited an animated rolling of the eyes from Nolan and Matt.
The stately table held enough seats for all eight adults and the children, with room to spare. Luca’s father Thiago led a prayer, and the group dug into the delicious breakfast. Matt reached for a biscuit and the cherry jam first. His mother’s biscuits were good enough on their own, but fresh jam was hard to come by.
“I trust everyone slept well last night. I was happy to see that everyone made it in safely,” Tam said, tipping the coffee carafe to fill his cup.
Many at the table nodded and spoke in agreement.
“We are grateful for you allowing us to come, Tam,” Bennet’s father Salim spoke up, his accent less thick than Matt remembered.
“I’m sure we all agree that now was the time to extract our families from society. It has been difficult not being able to see our families overseas this year—and those who recently lost many of their loved ones with the pandemic still haunting many countries around the globe… personally I am thankful we have your family’s generosity to help in this difficult transition.”
“Hear, hear,” Thiago echoed, holding up his goblet. Then, smiling, added, “I’ve always wanted to do that.”
Tam shook his head. “Nonsense. You have all been friends of ours for as long as I can remember. We would have it no other way.”
“And you wouldn’t survive a week without us,” Nolan’s mother, Jennifer chided. This drew a chuckle from around the table.
“He needs all the help he can get,” Brenda added, laughing.
“Well, I suppose the fact that we only invited you to this haunted castle to help us clean it means nothing, then,” Tam said, playing along, but immediately drew horrified looks from the two younger girls.
“It’s haunted?” Jenna screeched, eggs falling off her fork.
Immediately, Tam knew he had made a mistake. “No, I was just—”
“It is haunted!” Luca interrupted, his eyes wide. “I saw a huge shadow pass by my window last night!
“Luca, stop it,” Luca’s mother Sarah said, scowling, “We have impressionable minds here, and we don’t need that as we are trying to get settled.”
“I was only trying to—” Luca protested.
“Luca. Enough.”
It was all that his father needed to say, and suddenly Luca was quiet. He slumped immediately in his chair, pouting.
Tam cleared his throat. “Well, moving on, I figured we could have a meeting with the adults following breakfast. But for now, we should probably make some ground rules before we go much further. I know little about this place, same as everyone else, but I know that the area where the property resides is in a remote area—and full of wild animals. Most likely no one other than the caretaker Mingan has visited this place for many years, so there isn’t a way to tell what parts are safe or structurally sound.”
He paused for a breath, then continued. “My advice would be that we limit roaming to the immediate yard and take care not to disturb too much in the mansion before we’ve had a chance to assess it.”
Another round of nods from the adults circled around the table as breakfast continued. Luca finally sat up when the biscuits were passed his way, and before long, the heavy conversation turned into light ones as the group ate. Matt caught a glance from Luca every so often, and from what he could tell, Luca hadn’t been joking about seeing a shadow. He knew when his friend was lying, and he hadn’t been.
When breakfast was over and the table cleared, the adults adjourned to a side room attached to the dining hall where a grand fireplace stood with several couches and high-back chairs while Matt, Luca, Nolan, and Bennet retreated to Matt’s room.
“This must be the Bear Room,” Luca said, pointing to the wood carving of a ferocious bear on the back of the door. “There’s another library across from my room with a wolf carved into the door. And I’m betting there are two more somewhere. One with an eagle and one with a lion.”
“Man, you can’t sit for two seconds, and you want to explore something,” Bennet said, plopping on the bed. “You are a nutcase, Sniffs.”
They had nicknamed Luca ‘Sniffs’ ever since he had to start taking medicine to control his indigestion. The resulting gas from the pill’s side effects was nothing short of catastrophic.
“Heard you guys just barely made it out,” Nolan said, falling backward into the unmade king-sized bed. “The Quark Seekers, back together again.”
The Quark Seekers was the self-proclaimed name of their secret club. Though it sounded a bit childish now that they were older, they still accepted it. It had been Nolan’s idea, and somehow it had stuck over the years.
Matt nodded and gestured toward Luca. “I’m not blaming anyone for almost getting caught, but someone had to win the Q.R.L. Championships first.”
Bennet nearly spit out the coffee he was sipping. “You WON?”
“No way you beat the Dark Flyers,” Nolan said, wide-eyed.
Luca beamed. “Yep. By milliseconds too. You should’ve seen Ambrose’s face…”
“It was epic, for sure,” Matt admitted, “But nearly got us killed. Speaking of getting killed, I thought your dad was going to kill you for that joke about the shadow at breakfast.”
Luca’s eyes grew suddenly grim. “It wasn’t a joke.”
The other three boys were silent, peering at their friend. Then Bennet burst out laughing, shaking his head. “Wow, Sniffs, you are good. Best liar I’ve ever met. But you can’t pull that on us no more. We are almost fifteen now. Your pranks don’t scare us.”
“Guys, I’m not joking,” Luca said, his face stony.
Matt stared at his friend again. Like at the table, his face still didn’t show one who would be lying. He considered telling them about the noise he had heard outside the window. But what if Luca was joking? What if he had been hearing things that weren’t there? They would never let him live it down. He decided not to tell them.
“Nolan, still into plants?” Luca asked, changing the subject. “I heard there was a solarium here. And a garden.”
“I heard there was an armory,” Bennet added.
Luca smiled, leaning against a bookshelf. “It wouldn’t hurt just to look around, right? That’s not breaking the rules. Just looking.”
“I’m game!” Nolan exclaimed, suddenly interested after hearing about the solarium and garden. “I heard they were going to make us clean this afternoon anyway, so we better do it now.”
The four boys sighed at Nolan’s news.
“That will take us days. This place is gigantic,” Bennet said, scowling. “I don’t know why anyone would want to have a house this big.”
The other three grunted in agreement and hopped off the bed.
Luca led them out of the room and into the hallway. They passed Jenna and Jordan giggling in Jenna’s room. They had found some odd-looking porcelain dolls and were making fun of how they were dressed.
“Smell you later, hobos,” Jenna called out as they passed.
Matt slowed down, peeking at his younger sister and her friend, Jordan. Matt hadn’t seen Jordan in almost a year. She looked different.
“Don’t you have some maps to find?” Jenna said snidely, noticing him lingering.
Matt hurried to catch up with his friends.
“Still the same old dopey girls, I see,” Bennet scoffed as they reached the end of the hall. Matt’s parents’ room was on the left, with an enormous bathroom attached. Whoever built this place, they had style, that was certain.
Luca turned right and continued down another hall. Paintings of soldiers holding swords lined both walls, giving the appearance of a place of honor. An elegant set of wooden double doors appeared on the left as they passed the paintings.
“The armory,” Luca smiled.
The iron latches on the door clanked loudly in the stone hallway as Luca turned the knob. Then he pushed slowly, the old hinges groaning with the weight of the thick wood.
The four teens stood in awe at the immensity of the armory. From the outside, it appeared like just another room down one of the many hallways, but they couldn’t have been more wrong.
The ceiling stretched upward past the main floor, and even past the second floor to the mansion’s roof. At its pinnacle were windows that brought in natural light. A grand fireplace towered from floor to ceiling.
Luca was already standing in front of the wall farthest from the entrance. “Guys, look! Weapons!”
Facing him were various armaments, ranging from short and long swords to maces and axes. On one hook hung a large flail, and another, a lethal-looking battle-ax.
“Oh man, the people that lived here before must have had the greatest fights ever!” Luca said, spinning and spreading his arms wide, his eyes sweeping the array of weapons.
Bennet picked up a dusty helmet with a large dent in the side. “Yeah, tons of fun.”
Several broad wooden beams were scattered around the room, which must have served as training fixtures. Hundreds of gouges and gashes were peppered all over the wood.
Nolan stood near a bookshelf, where several smaller weapons were placed. He picked up a small dagger with a dragon in the hilt. “Seriously, though, what is this place?” he asked.
Matt walked to the bookshelf, watching Nolan examine the dagger. “The eyes are rubies,” he said.
“Do you think they are real?” Nolan asked.
“With the amount of money they put into this place, I can’t believe they wouldn’t be,” Bennet said. He picked up what looked like a copper cuff or bracelet. Another bluish gem sparkled in the center. “What’s this?”
Luca snickered. “I don’t know. I bet it will look good on you.”
“Whatever,” Bennet said, replacing the bracelet. “I bet if they found out about us being in here, we’d be dead. We better abandon the room of death and check out other places.”
Matt turned toward the door, thinking of his father’s warning. “He’s right. We need to keep moving. Put down the dagger, Pops.”
Nolan let the weapon clatter back onto the shelf. The other three boys whipped around and shushed him.
“Nolan! Do you not know the meaning of stealth? We aren’t exactly on a sanctioned mission here!” Luca whispered angrily.
“Sorry, sheesh,” Nolan said, shrugging.
They hurried out of the armory and continued down the hall. Nolan was the first to the next door, which was directly in front of them at the end of the hall. Opening it, he peeked inside while the others caught up. “What are all these? More weapons?”
Luca peeked in after him. “Coat racks, genius. This is a coat closet.”
“Looks like storage as well,” Bennet added, noting the covered furniture and various odd decorative items.
Suddenly, they heard a soft clanging of a bell from somewhere on the other side of the wall. Nolan shut the coat closet door.
“What was that?” Matt asked.
Bennet disappeared around the corner. A moment later, he reappeared. “It’s a chapel. Come look.”
Matt, Nolan, and Luca followed Bennet through the doors of the arched entrance. Like the armory, the chapel was expansive, reaching all the way to the mansion’s roof. A large stained-glass window on the far wall sprayed a myriad of colors throughout the interior of the room. The four boys looked for the source of the bell, but it was nowhere in sight.
They stared at the impressive window. In the center, the colorful images of four hooded warriors stood beneath a large tree, each of them placing a hand on a sword stuck blade down into the dirt. Four strange creatures hovered behind them. Each was half-man, half beast. The leftmost creature was part bear on the top half, and human on the bottom. The second from the left was similar, but part wolf. The next creature was part eagle, and the last, part lion. Above the warriors, the creatures, and the window was a short phrase in Latin.
“The same animals are on the chandelier,” Matt muttered, taking a few steps toward the front of the chapel.
“And the libraries,” Luca added.
Bennet tapped on one of the rows of ornate wooden pews, enjoying the low, thunking noise it made. “Warriors holding a sword. It’s like every single old church ever. I wonder if they were trying to impersonate the knights of the round table or something,” he said. “What do you think the words say?”
“Arx leo,” Matt said aloud. “The second word is ‘Lion.’ The first word is ‘keep,’ I think.”
“Lion Keep? You sure it doesn’t say ‘lion library’?” Luca said, making his way down the center aisle ahead of the others.
Matt stared at the words. His Latin was not good. The word ‘arx,’ he remembered from one of his textbooks. He could have sworn it meant a keep in a castle, but he couldn’t be sure. The word ‘leo,’ however, was pretty obvious.
Nolan followed Luca toward the altar beneath the window. Atop the altar sat two candelabras with a medium-sized box in the center.
“What do you think is in the box?” he asked.
Matt and Bennet followed them. “Probably some holy water or oil or something,” Luca answered.
“Or ashes,” Bennet suggested.
“Open it, Sniffs,” Matt said.
Luca scowled. “Why me? Who knows what’s in there? It could be poison.”
“Poison?” Matt said, scowling. “In a chapel?”
“You never know. It could be,” Luca said, putting his hand on the dark wood box. It looked old, but then again, anyone can make something look old.
“It could be someone’s teeth. Just open it,” Matt told him.
Luca fingered the brass key that stuck out of the lock.
Nolan shook his head. “Don’t do it, Luca. This is the kind of stuff that gets us in trouble all the time.”
“The kind of stuff you get us into,” Bennet added.
Luca cocked his head at Nolan. “I don’t get us in trouble all the time—”
“Yeah, you do,” all three boys answered in unison.
Luca turned the key. Matt, Nolan, and Bennet took several steps back.
“You are all a bunch of cojudos,” Luca said. Then he flung the box open.
