Gabriel Finley and the Raven’s Riddle (26 page)

That was when a lightbulb went off in Abby's head. After school that afternoon, she and Gabriel stopped Somes as he came down the steps.

“Somes, can I ask you a question?” said Abby. “Have you ever had your eyes checked?”

“My eyes?” he replied. “Why?”

“Well, you do this thing that I used to do before I got glasses.”

Abby demonstrated by holding a book just inches from her eyes.

“So?”

“Maybe that's why reading is so hard. You should see an eye doctor.”

“I can't.” Somes couldn't imagine his father being willing to take him.

“Well, guess what? My mother's an eye doctor. I could ask her to look at you right now.”

He regarded her skeptically. “Why would she do that for me?”

Abby talked Somes into walking with them to her mother's office, six blocks away. Ms. Chastain was a small woman
who wore glasses herself. Gabriel noticed that she had Abby's inquisitive stare. She dabbed drops in Somes's eyes and told him to sit with Abby and Gabriel in the waiting room. Later, she gave him an eye test and made adjustments on a machine in front of his face.

“Your near vision is very poor, Somes,” she said. “I'm going to give you a prescription for reading glasses. You must wear them whenever you read.”

“I hate reading,” he replied.

“I understand, because it's all blurry.” She smiled. “It's about to get much easier.” She wrote a prescription and sent the three kids to an eyeglass shop around the corner.

Somes halted at the door. “I can't pay for glasses.”

Abby explained that her mother had arranged payment. “All you have to do is pick them out. It's a breeze.”

A few days later, when the glasses were ready, Abby and Gabriel went back to the shop with Somes. He examined one of his schoolbooks. Words that had been fuzzy and difficult to read were now sharp and clear. “Wow,” he murmured. He gave Abby a cautious glance. “Thank you.”

Abby smiled. “You're welcome, Somes.”

Then he looked at Gabriel. “Did you know that there's a mausoleum in the graveyard with your name on it? It has ravens all along the top. There are stairs leading down somewhere.”

“Ravens? Stairs leading down?” Gabriel turned to Abby, wide-eyed. “I bet it's the entrance to Aviopolis! The first time I met Septimus he told me it was ‘miles right beneath us!' ”

“It makes perfect sense!” agreed Abby. “Somes? Will you show us?”

Hurrying through the windswept cemetery, the three friends were barely able to contain their excitement. When they found the mausoleum, they approached slowly, quietly, the way you might approach a cliff edge.

Somes tried to turn the bronze gate's handle, but it was either very rusty or locked. He couldn't open it, so he pointed through the gate at a staircase that descended into darkness.

“It looks like it goes on forever,” said Abby.

“Let me get this straight,” said Somes. “You think a guy is keeping your dad down there?”

“Well, he's sort of a half-raven, half-human guy called Corax,” replied Gabriel.

“Corax,” repeated Somes. He told them about the conversation he had overheard in the cemetery.

“Probably valravens,” Gabriel said.

Somes looked at him doubtfully. “C'mon. Birds that talk like people?”

“You'd be surprised,” said Abby. “Valravens serve Corax. They're flesh eaters. You're very lucky they didn't attack you.”

“That's crazy.”

“I know it's hard to believe, but it's true,” said Abby.

Although he was full of astonishment as Abby explained the Finley family's history and Gabriel's unusual friendship with Paladin, what most impressed Somes was something else. “Your dad must be pretty cool for you to go to all this trouble,” he said. “Do you really think you can rescue him?”

“Well,” said Gabriel, “I have to try.”

Staring down the darkening steps, Somes nervously asked, “Hey … Do you think … Can I come with you guys?”

“Sure, but it's dangerous,” Gabriel warned him. “We don't know what's down there.”

Somes looked at Abby. She had a small, excited smile.

“Count me in,” he said.

Where Is Septimus?

P
amela guessed that Gabriel had a plan, because he ate Trudy's latest soup without comment. Trudy assured them it was a minestrone, but there were objects bobbing in the mixture that resembled shoelaces and rubber bands, and the smell was like moldy boots left in an attic.

Even Trudy noticed Gabriel's hearty appetite. “
Somebody
seems to have changed his mind about my cooking!” she remarked.

“What? Oh, right,” said Gabriel.

Pamela followed Gabriel outside after dinner. He stood alone in the backyard, holding the staff.

“Where's Paladin?” she asked.

“Oh, I asked him to take a message to Septimus by way of the sparrows,” he explained.

“I see,” she replied enviously. Recently, she'd attempted to befriend the writing desk by trying to talk to it in her head. It did not reply.

“Hey, guess what? I found out how to get to Aviopolis.” Gabriel told Pamela all about the mausoleum and the staircase
he hoped would lead him to the bird city. “So we're planning to rescue my—”

“I'm coming,” interrupted Pamela.

He nodded. “I figured you'd want to, but listen—it could be dangerous.”

“What could be dangerous?” asked a voice.

Trudy was standing in the doorway. “Pamela? Where are you going with
him
? Tell me right now!”

Gabriel noticed that Aunt Jaz lingered behind Trudy, listening.

“Mother, I'm going to Aviopolis.”

“Where?”
asked Trudy.

“It's nowhere, seriously,” said Gabriel.

“I doubt that,” snapped Trudy. “And you, young lady, are not going out all night like last time, worrying me to death. Now, where is this place?”

To Gabriel's horror, Pamela repeated everything he had just told her.

“It's … it's an amazing city full of birds,” she said. “It's miles beneath the earth, and very hard to get to. We think you enter through the cemetery and walk down a deep staircase!”

Trudy's reaction was a surprise, however. Her anger melted and she gave her daughter a small, indulgent smile. “Oh, I see,” she said. “Sometimes I forget that you're still a child with an imagination. Look at the time. You still have practicing to do, dear!”

“Yes, Mother.” Pamela shot Gabriel a sly glance, then followed Trudy back inside.

Aunt Jaz, however, didn't look as amused. “Gabriel,” she said, “if you were any other boy, I would tell you to forget about this. Stay at home, enjoy your childhood.” Then her voice softened. “But you are like no other boy. To talk to ravens, fly with them, and unlock the secret of a necklace that has been a mystery for a thousand years—well, I don't quite know what to say, except that you are your father's son, and if anyone can help him, it is you. But please be very careful.”

Gabriel promised her that he would.

Once Aunt Jaz had walked back inside, Paladin arrived, breathless and agitated.

“Bad news,” he said. “Nobody's seen Septimus in a week. The valravens may have gotten him.”

Gabriel and Paladin flew to Septimus's rooftop terrace apartment. What they found was a shock. Every window had been shattered; the french doors swung carelessly in the breeze; plush armchairs had been pecked to pieces, their stuffing spilled across the floor. Many of the valuable pots and vases Crawfin and Septimus had gathered (or stolen) from all over the world had been picked up and dropped on the hearth to reveal their contents. The grand fireplace that once crackled with a blazing fire was now a dark hole.

A tatty-looking raven with a jagged beak and a blistered, featherless neck looked up when Gabriel and Paladin entered.

“Answer me this! Whenever I introduce myself, people turn and walk away. What is my name?”

“Hmm,” said Paladin. “Is it
Goodbye
?”

“Well done, Paladin,” whispered Gabriel.

The valraven, however, was furious that the young raven had solved the riddle so quickly. It flew at them, sharp talons extended, but Gabriel removed his coat and used it to bat the valraven away. It hurtled across the room, toward the enormous mantel, and dropped into a large stone urn perched on top.

Gabriel immediately clamped a lid on the urn. The bird squawked and struggled inside.

From the other room, a second valraven appeared. “No necklace here,” it muttered, then noticed Gabriel and Paladin. Raising its wings threateningly, it said, “Where is Septimus Geiger?”

“I was looking for him myself,” Gabriel replied.

“Looking?” The valraven smiled viciously. “You'll have no need of your eyes when I'm finished.”

It fluttered across the room and perched in the ashes of the fireplace, searching for its companion. “Grinderbeak? Where are you?”

At that moment, the urn began rocking violently above him.

“Grinderbeak! Show yourself!” snapped the valraven.

The urn tottered, then tipped off the mantel and shattered upon the valraven below, silencing them both.

Gabriel surveyed the pillaged room. “Now, where could Septimus be?”

“Do we really need him?” asked Paladin. “The mausoleum leads down to Aviopolis, I'm sure of it.”

“Yes, Paladin, but we have to find my dad in a maze of passages, and Septimus knows exactly where he is.”

Suddenly, a voice came from behind them.

“What gets wet when it dries?”

Gabriel turned with Paladin, but they couldn't see who had spoken.

“What gets wet when it dries?” repeated the voice.

“Wet when it dries? Doesn't make sense. How can something get—” began Gabriel.

“A towel!” replied Paladin with a laugh.

A chuckle of raven laughter came from the old globe in the center of the room. A crack appeared in the lower hemisphere, right between Paraguay and Argentina, and the scruffy raven from Mr. Pleshette's shop flew out.

“Hobblewing!” cried Paladin.

“Greetings, old friends!” said Hobblewing. “Look, I've learned to fly!”

“Excellent,” said Paladin. “Say, have you seen Septimus anywhere?”

“Why, of course,” said the bird. “I'm his lookout.” He
raised his head and uttered three sharp throks in the direction of the fireplace.

Cinders began to fall from the chimney into the grate. Suddenly, two boots dropped down, followed by trousers and a long coat. A figure as gray as ash dusted himself off to reveal snow-white hair and a weatherbeaten face.

“Young Finley?” He sniffed. “I didn't expect a visit from you.”

“Septimus,” said Gabriel, “my friends and I think we found an entrance to Aviopolis in a graveyard.”

The man looked disappointed that his secret had been discovered. “You found it? I had forgotten how inquisitive children can be.”

“Yeah,” continued Gabriel, realizing his advantage. “So if you help me find my father—”

“Help you?”
Septimus said bitterly. “Go find him yourself.”

As Gabriel wondered how to get him on board, he noticed the ugly scar around his neck.

“Septimus,” he replied, “I'm sure my father would help you remove the torc if you showed me the way there.”

Suddenly, Septimus's face turned eerily blue. “Remove it?” he snapped in an unnaturally shrill voice.
“Never!”

Surprised that these words sprang from his mouth, Septimus winced and corrected himself in a desperate whisper. “No, no, it's all for the good. Must get rid of it, quickly, quickly!”

The Journey Begins