Emma and the Minotaur (19 page)

“Cool,” Lucy said.

Doug Peterson finished his speech and the crowd started to disperse.

“What’s happening now?” Jake said.

“We’re moving into the forest,” said Professor Thornton. “Well, the rest of us are. But what are the two of you doing here?”

“We’re coming with you,” Jake said. “We have information.”

“Oh, you do? Well, we must speak to Chief Peterson immediately.”

He led them through the crowd until they reached the security office.

“Doug,” said Professor Thornton. “I found these kids here. They say they want to come help search and that they have some information.”

Lucy knew that the tone that Professor Thornton was using meant that he didn’t take them seriously. She rolled her eyes.

“Well,” Chief Peterson said. “What is this information?” He looked at Jake. The boy stood up straighter. It seemed that he was impressed by the uniform.

“It’s about the monsters in the forest,” Jake said. “There is a minotaur and he’s taking people and he’s got my dad and her mom and dad too.”

The two men exchanged glances.

“You two are both missing your parents? Who’s looking after you?”

“My mom is working,” Jake said. “And no one is looking after Lucy.”

“Okay, Jake,” Lucy said. “I think we should go. This was a bad idea.”

“But Lucy,” said the boy. “Someone is finally listening and doing something.”

“Indeed we are, my boy,” said Doug Peterson. “Please, step here into my office and you can give us more details.”

He opened the door to the portable office and waved them in. Jake didn’t hesitate. Lucy rolled her eyes again but followed after the boy. She couldn’t leave him alone now.

As soon as she was inside, Chief of Police Doug Peterson slammed the door closed and Lucy heard it being locked. She looked at the door and saw that the lock could only be operated using a key.

“These things are used to detain people,” Doug Peterson said through the door. “They roll them out at demonstrations and the like. Nothing permanent, just until they can be taken away. It should hold you kids in there for a bit. Hang tight. Someone will be here soon to pick you up.”

They heard the two men walk away.

“It’s for the best,” Professor Thornton said. “We can’t have them following us into the forest…”

Their voices faded away.

“Well,” Lucy said, turning to Jake. “So much for that.”

She frowned. Jake was laughing.

“What?” she said.

“Look up there, Lucy. The windows.”

It took her a moment to think it through but then she laughed as well. There were windows in the portable office. They were high up and they were too small for an adult, but maybe one of them could squeeze through.

They pushed the desk next to the wall and Lucy climbed up to inspect the window.

“Okay,” she said. “I don’t know, Jake. Emma could probably fit through here, but I don’t think either one of us could.”

Jake went up on the desk with her. They tried to open the window but it wouldn’t budge.

“We could bash it with something,” he said. “But I think you’re right. I don’t think we’d fit.”

Jake climbed down and took a look around the room. Lucy leaned against the wall and watched him. The boy looked in all the drawers of the desk and in the filing cabinets.

He frowned.

“Wait a second,” he said. “We came here once. Me and Emma. A guard found us in the forest and brought us here. I remember he was chewing gum. It was annoying.”

Lucy didn’t understand but she watched the boy go to the ground and under the desk. She climbed down just as Jake found what he was looking for. There was a piece of gum stuck to the underside of the desk and attached to it was a shiny silver key.

“Maybe it’s the spare,” he said.

She tousled the boy’s hair.

“Let’s see,” she said and they went to the door. The key slid into the lock easily and soon they were free.

They left the security office and went on their way toward the forest. When they came within sight of the trees, they saw the last of the searchers disappear under their cover. They ran after them.

As they reached the forest, Lucy signalled for Jake to stop.

“Okay,” she said, “we should follow behind someone but try not to let them see us.”

“Okay,” Jake said.

They took one step into the forest and suddenly they were surrounded by it. In every direction there was nothing but trees. The construction site from which they had come was nowhere to be seen.

“That’s weird,” Lucy said.

Somewhere in the forest there was thunder.

14

Battle Song

“You’re right.”

Mr Wilkins stood up. He walked to the window and looked out down the the road toward the direction of the forest. He was hunched over like a tired man, defeated, but as the moments went by they watched him breathe in and out. With each breath he stood a little straighter, a little more determined.

He turned toward them.

“You’re right, Emma. We can’t just give up. I’ll go look for them. Maybe I can get Domino to help.”

“I’ve been trying to call him all afternoon, Dad,” Emma said. “I’m afraid something might have happened to him.”

“Well, I have to try,” he said.

Emma nodded. “So do I,” she said.

She could see that he was going to object or maybe try to forbid her from leaving the house. Emma thought that it may be easier to just let him order her to stay and then go to the forest when he was gone. She decided against that because whenever she had tried to be sneaky, everything had turned out wrong.

“No, Emma, you stay here,” he said and turned to the boy. “You watch that she goes nowhere. Restrain her if you have to.”

He started toward the door but Emma stood up and blocked his way. “No, Dad!” she said. “I have to go, you see. You need me. You won’t be able to do anything at all if something has happened to Domino. I can talk to anything, Dad. I can ask for help and like you said before, maybe it doesn’t matter where we are in the world because this thing will eventually get there.”

William Wilkins took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. Emma knew that he was really thinking about what she had said. He always considered things carefully, and often slowly, and he was a reasonable man.

“I think she’s right dad,” Will said. He stood up and joined them. “Besides, I’ve been thinking about it. I know I haven’t said much since the beginning but all this has been really hard to believe. But I’ve been paying attention and listening and I don’t think all this could’ve been for nothing. It seems to me like the trees know things so there is probably a part for Emma to play.”

Mr Wilkins frowned.

“And a part for us, Dad,” Will said. “Me, you, Jake, and Lucy.”

There was a long silence and then a sigh. “Okay,” Mr Wilkins said finally. “Will, go to the basement and get us some flashlights. I don’t know what else we might need. We don’t have any weapons and it’s not like we’d know how to use them.”

“We’ll use our best weapons. Our brains!” Emma said. “You used to say that.”

“I did,” he said and chuckled.

Emma ran to her room. She went under her bed and took out her old yellow lunchbox. Beside it there was a plastic bag filled with leftover ribbons from when they had been searching the forest. She took out the longest of these and tied both ends to the lunchbox’s handle. They probably weren’t going to need anything that was inside the lunchbox but it contained all her most valuable possessions and she didn’t know what was going to happen from then on, or where they might end up. She slung the strap over her shoulder and walked out into the hall just as Mr Jingles rejoined her.

“What’s in there?” Will asked her when he saw her come out.

“Just knick-knacks, mostly.”

“Why are you bringing it?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “Probably just so that it gets in the way.”

“You’re a dork,” he said and handed her a flashlight. She took it in her left hand while she held her flute in her right.

As they were about to leave the house, Mr Wilkins turned toward Will and said, “Where are you going?”

“I’m coming too, of course,” he said.

Mr Wilkins seemed about to argue but instead he shook his head. “Of course,” he said and stepped outside.

Emma and Will exchanged a smile. Will nodded and they both exited into the night. They didn’t know it then, but it was the last time that they would ever see the house where they had grown up.

The three Wilkinses and the jackalope walked down the street under the darkening sky. They neared the little dog's house and saw him sitting on his porch. When he saw them pass, the dog with the big ears stood up and let out a great, big howl.

Emma knew that he was wishing them good luck.

As they approached Glenridge Forest, they began to hear the sounds of the battle. There were gunshots and there was thunder.

By the time they reached the tree line, the sky was dark, the gunshots were less frequent, and the thunder was more intense. A squirrel ran out into the road and fled down the street. A group of large birds squawked overhead and sped past them into the night.

“Another step,” said William Wilkins, “and there’s no turning back.”

“It’s true,” Emma said. “The forest is like a labyrinth.”

Before anyone could say anything more, Emma put the end of her flute into one of her pockets, and the end of the flashlight into the other. She reached out and took her brother’s hand in hers and then did the same thing with her father. Mr Jingles, she knew, would follow.

“Here we go,” she said and stepped forward.

They were surrounded by the forest. From inside it, the sounds of fighting and screaming were loud and clear. There was a dull thudding there also, like drums beating a regular rhythm underneath it all.

“What now?” Will said.

“Seems easy from here,” Emma said. “Just follow that noise and hope Domino or someone on our side shows up.”

“Who else is on our side?”

Emma pursed her lips. “I have no idea.”

They turned on their flashlights and started to walk. As they moved, they heard the sound of creaking wood that had accompanied Emma the last time that she had been in the forest during the night. She was frightened and she could see that Will was too. Mr Wilkins had a curious look on his face but she thought that maybe underneath it there was fear.

Emma had no idea what would happen, and she hoped that Domino would come and that he would tell them what to do.

They walked for a while. Emma looked down at her watch and saw that it was already seven thirty. There was something funny about the time but she couldn’t figure out what it was. The cartoon mouse made her want to laugh. Maybe it was because of the contrast between it and the horrible sounds that she was hearing.

“My batteries died,” Will said suddenly.

They stopped where they stood and looked at the boy. His flashlight had gone out and he was shaking it, trying to get it to work again. Mr Wilkins asked to see it but, as he was about to take it in his hands, his own flashlight went out as well.

“This is strange,” Mr Wilkins said. “These should be fresh batteries.”

“I don’t think it’s the batteries,” Will said and the last of the light went out as Emma’s flashlight stopped working also. They were blind in the night.

“Give me your hands,” Mr Wilkins said and the children did so. “We’ll wait for our night vision.” He sat down on the ground and pulled them down with him. Emma felt Mr Jingles jump on her lap.

From the dark of the night there came a new sound. It was as though someone had whistled. It was far away at first but another whistle followed it. It sounded closer.

“Someone’s coming,” Will said. Emma squeezed his hand.

“Quiet,” Mr Wilkins whispered. “Maybe they won’t notice us.”

A third whistle sounded much closer this time and it was answered by yet another one from a different direction.

There was another whistle, and another, and another.

Emma’s heart beat hard in her chest as the whistlers came closer and multiplied. They were coming from all directions, and they sounded as though they were moving straight toward them. It was a mad cacophony of whistling that made her ears hurt. Even her father was squeezing her hand too hard.

“Maybe we should run,” Mr Wilkins said. “Blind in the dark.”

Emma took her hands away from them and clutched her flute. “Music is light,” she said and began to hum. She hummed a song she’d heard maybe once or twice before but she had never forgotten. She didn’t know the name of it but she hummed and hummed as the mad whistling came closer and closer.

When it seemed as though the whistlers were right upon them, Emma’s flute began to glow and it lit their surroundings.

She stood up, as did her brother and her father. The light of the flute revealed that they were surrounded by steam, but it was quickly dissipating. The whistling ceased. In the light of the flute they saw, stopped in their tracks, short creatures with stubby legs. They were like dogs but they had the ears of cats.