Chase Tinker & The House of Magic (17 page)

"What!" Janie yelped again. "Another
premonition dream? When did that start?"

"When I first got here and started sleeping
in the Premonition Room," he said. "
And
, they've been coming
true. The one tonight was about the attic. And guess what? We can
get in there now." He lounged back with a smug smile and crossed
his arms.

"How do you know it works?" asked Janie.
"After all, look at me. Well, not now, but you know what I
mean."

"Do I appear to be changed in any way?" he
asked, raising his arms.

"Uh, no…wait, you were already upstairs?
Without me?" she squeaked, sounding like Maxwell. "What—"

"Don't worry. I didn't go in," Chase cut in.
"I figure we'll sneak up there when you're feeling better." He
jumped off the bed. "Anyway, I'm out of here. I just wanted to keep
you posted on what's happening."

"Wait," said Janie as he opened the door.
"Did you tell Grandfather we had an intruder?"

"No, I was too excited about getting into the
attic," answered Chase, pausing in the doorway. "But he looks so
worried all the time, I hate to bother him with something else. I'm
sure it'll be okay. I'll be more prepared if it happens again."

"He still needs to know someone is getting
past some of the house's enchantments," she said. "Maybe it was one
of the...Dark Enemy." Her voice dropped to a shaky whisper as she
said the last two words.

Chase stared across the room, his mind
racing. "You know, you might be right. This man wasn't an ordinary
person. He had…he had this aura of
evil
around him. I've
never felt that from anyone else. Not even Doctor Dan." He paused
for a long, tense moment. "That's why we need to get into the attic
and get some answers."

"C
ome on, Chase,"
said Andy while bouncing on his brother and tugging on his
blankets. "You have to wake up!"

Chase grabbed the bedspread and held on
tight. "Go away, dork. I'm not done sleeping. What time is it,
anyway?"

"It's 9 O'clock and you need to see
something," said Andy, prying at Chase's clenched fingers.

"I don't want to. It's too early. And anyway,
you ruined an awesome dream I was having."

"Whatever," said Andy. "This is much better
than any crummy dream."

"You wouldn't know because you weren't
there." Chase flopped back and forth as he attempted to shake Andy
off the bed.

"Please. I promise you'll like it."

With a loud sigh, Chase flung back the
covers. "I'd never be able to get back to sleep after this anyway,"
he growled.

"Cool," said Andy, grinning as he jumped to
the floor, not at all put-off by his brother's grumpiness. "Come to
the kitchen when you're ready." He practically skipped from the
room.

Storming into the kitchen thirty minutes
later, Chase opened his mouth to yell at Andy, but stopped halfway.
Standing in the room, grinning from ear to ear, was his mom.
Grandfather and Persephone were there beaming at him too.

"Mom!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing
here?"

"She came for your birthday," said Andy,
looking smug. "I knew you'd be surprised."

"My birthday's not for two days," said Chase
as his mom wrapped him in a tight hug, pinning his arms to his
sides.

"Chase, I'm so happy to see you!"

He gave her an awkward pat on the back. "Um,
I'm happy to see you too, Mom."

Anne leaned back and smiled at him. "Your
grandfather came for me. Teleporting is something else, isn't it?"
she said, fluffing her ponytail. "I was sure I'd left my hair
somewhere behind."

Chase grinned at her. "That's how I
felt."

"Mom wants us to show her some magic rooms,"
Andy cut in excitedly. "She'll love the extra arms one. She could
sure use those at the hospital when she's cleaning bedpans."

"Gross!" said Chase, frowning at his brother.
He turned back to his mom "How long can you stay?"

"Three days, then back to work," she
answered. "It's sure a lot cooler and quieter here than in New
York."

"We'll have to take you to Seattle to do some
sight-seeing," said Chase, hopping onto a stool. "Grandfather's
been wanting us to go up in the Space Needle ever since we got
here."

"He'll probably make you go see the flying
fish too," whispered Andy, behind his hand.

"I heard that," said Grandfather. "But before
we get to see any fish, flying or not, we first get to eat these
delectable blueberry pancakes. So dig in."

They were filling their plates and arguing
about their favorite baseball teams when Janie barreled into the
room. She crashed right into Anne, who was balancing a cup of hot
coffee and a plate of scrambled eggs and pancakes in her hands.

Janie grabbed for the falling plate. "Oops!
Sorry I wasn't watching—oh, um…hi," she said, looking confused when
her gaze landed on Anne's unfamiliar face.

"Oh my goodness!" exclaimed Anne as she
plopped the coffee cup onto the counter and rubbed her hand where a
few drops had scalded it. "And who are you?"

"I'm Janie. Clair's daughter," said Janie.
She jumped out of the way when a mop swished over to clean up the
food splattered on the floor. "My mom and I are staying here right
now too."

"Ben—Benjamin's sister is here?" said Anne,
glancing around while everyone else exchanged looks. "I've never
met her. He never wanted to get together with any of his family.
He'd get all tight-lipped and grouchy whenever I mentioned it."

"You know he wanted to keep all the Tinker
magic stuff from us, Mom!" said Chase, scowling.

"Yes, well, Clair's been very ill," said
Grandfather. He hurried to Anne's side and grasped her elbow. "Why
don't we discuss a few things in the study, Anne, while the kids
have breakfast."

"Uh…okay…but I don't…" Her voice trailed off
as she sent Chase a quick, puzzled look before Grandfather hustled
her from the room.

Chase stared after them. It looked like
Grandfather was finally ready to break the news to his mom about
his dad. She sure was going to be mad they'd kept things from
her.

"So, Janie, what's up?" he asked as he
grabbed the maple syrup. "Yesterday you looked like a carnival
sideshow act and now you look like you again."

"Last night when Mom was sleeping, I snuck
into the Healing Room for a little bit." Raising her arms, she
pirouetted gracefully.

Chase smiled. "Cool! I thought for sure you'd
look that way for days."

"Me too," she said, with a grimace. "I
thought I might need to borrow Andy's invisibility cap." She
perched herself on a stool and grabbed a pancake. "So I guess
Grandfather's still doesn't plan on telling us what's going on with
my mom."

"Maybe not," said Persephone, "but we still
need to trust that he has a good reason."

"I'm having a very hard time trusting him
right now," muttered Janie, ripping her pancake apart.

Not knowing what else to say about
Grandfather and the secrets he continued to keep from them, the
kids finished their breakfast in silence. They were cleaning up
when the door swung open again.

"Children," said Grandfather, "Anne would
like to go upstairs and meet Clair, and I think you should come
along as well."

"I thought she was still unconscious or
whatever," said Chase, with a sideways glance at Janie.

"Actually, I saw her this morning and she's
much improved. I would have told you sooner, but I felt she needed
a bit more time before everyone barged in," he answered as he sent
Janie a smile. She crossed her arms and stared at the counter.

"Sounds good, Mr. Hiram," said Persephone as
she shooed several sponges and flapping dishtowels into the magical
Tidy Closet before closing the door. "I'm ready to go."

"Yeah, me too!" Andy added. "Chase, we
finally get to hear about our dad."

Chase's heart skipped with excitement. At
last, the good news they'd all been waiting for! It would be the
best early birthday present anyone could possibly give him. He
jumped up to follow the others, but stopped when he realized Janie
wasn't doing the same. "Come on, Janie, I know you're still mad,
but you need to be there too."

"You heard him. Grandfather lied right to our
faces!" she said, glaring at him. "It's too messed up for me."

"But don't you want to figure out what's
going on?" he said. "And you know you have to talk to her sometime,
anyway, so it might as well be now." Before she had a chance to
tell him to mind his own business, he grabbed her hand and dragged
her through the door.

A few minutes later they joined the group
standing around the Healing Room's four-poster bed. Clair, propped
up by several pillows, was gazing at each anxious face when her
eyes stopped on one. "Anne! You—you're Anne?" she murmured, her
voice sounding raspy from disuse.

"Yes, yes," said Grandfather. "Your
sister-in-law, Benjamin's wife."

"Benjamin," said Clair. "Yes, Ben."

"Where the heck is he?" Chase blurted out.
"What happened to him?"

"Chase!" exclaimed Anne. "Calm down! Your
aunt has been very sick. I'm sure she'll tell us when she can."
Anne turned questioning eyes to the woman in the bed. "You will
tell us, won't you?" She swallowed the lump in her throat. "You've
seen him?"

"Yes, I saw him," said Clair, plucking at the
bedcovers and bunching them between her fingers. "I'll tell you
what I can remember."

"Do—do you know what happened to him?" asked
Andy.

She turned her head and looked at her
youngest nephew. "I'm sorry, I don't."

Chase wondered if it was possible for all the
air to be sucked from the room because suddenly, it was very hard
to breathe. After all this time of holding on to hope, he sure
wasn't ready for this. "What does that mean?" he blurted out. "You
have to know what happened to him! You went to rescue him, didn't
you?"

"I did. Rescue him, that is," Clair answered
so quietly they had to lean over the bed to hear. "It took a lot of
searching, and waiting. I wanted the ones who had him to capture me
too, so I could help Ben escape."

"Where did they take you?" asked Andy.

"They were holding him captive near a town
called Blackshire in southern England in the dungeons of an old,
incredibly disgusting building," said Clair, wrinkling her nose.
"And when we had a chance, we walked through the wall and escaped
the cell he was in."

"Wait a minute," said Chase, frowning. "You
walked through the wall?"

"That's my power. I can move through any
solid object. It was the perfect plan, until they realized we were
gone."

"What happened?" asked Anne as she gripped
Chase's arm.

Clair turned to look at Anne, tears in her
eyes. "We ran as fast as we could, trying to stay hidden in the
trees. Ben was having a harder time of it because he was weak from
his long incarceration. They were shooting arrows at us and I was
hit in the arm by one, but we didn't have time to stop."

"Grandfather healed your injuries," Janie cut
in.

Clair patted her daughter's hand. "I know.
After that, we decided to split up, to make it harder for them to
follow us, and meet again in London in front of Big Ben." She
smiled. "That was Ben's idea. Thought he was being clever. Even
after what he'd been through, he kept his sense of humor."

Clair paused for a moment and took a deep
breath. "I hitched a ride with someone heading for the city and
they dropped me off at Big Ben. Benjamin never showed up. I waited
and waited; then they were in London, searching for us. I knew I
had to get away and get home. I prayed Ben would make it home
too.

"I had my belongings in a hotel room, but
they found me there and I barely escaped. I took my passport and
ran for it. They seemed to be watching everywhere. I finally made
it out of the city and was able to stow away on a freighter sailing
to America." She brushed a hand through her tousled hair. "You have
no idea how sorry I am that I don't have better news for you."

"You had his driver's license," said Chase in
an accusing voice.

"What?" asked Clair, looking startled.

"We found a jacket in the motorboat you came
in and his license was in the pocket."

"It was pouring rain and he gave me the coat
he had on," she explained, her voice catching. "And—and as you can
see, I was unable to return it."

No one knew what to say after that. Chase
moved away until his back was pressed against the wall. He slid to
the floor and rested his forearms on his bent knees. They had
waited all this time to hear what she had to say, and yet she
hadn't told them the one thing they needed to know. Where was
Benjamin Tinker?

Chase saw Andy across the room, screwing up
his face as if trying not to cry. Their mom looked dazed as she
wiped her eyes with her shirt sleeve. Frustration burned inside
Chase. He banged the back of his head on the wall, hoping it would
help, but all it did was cause a throbbing pain behind his
eyes.

Grandfather cleared his throat. "Maybe we
should leave now and let Clair get more rest."

Andy, Persephone, Janie and Grandfather
wandered from the room, leaving Chase and Anne to trail more
slowly.

"Anne?"

Anne turned and looked into Clair's watery
eyes.

"I'm so sorry. I tried," Clair whispered.
"I—I wish we'd met under better circumstances."

Anne opened her mouth to answer, but looked
unsure as to what to say. So instead, she gave a sharp nod and then
rushed from the room.

Chase climbed to his feet and plodded toward
the door. He ducked his head. "I'll, um, see you later," he mumbled
as he slipped away.

He found everyone, except Janie, back in the
kitchen. Andy and Persephone were arguing about which would be more
fun, the Woodland Park Zoo or the Aquarium. Mrs. Periwinkle was
bustling around the kitchen in her usual way, while Grandfather and
Anne, heads down, silently shoved their food back and forth on
their plates.