Sea Monsters and Other Delicacies (9 page)

THE NEXT MORNING, WHEN ULF WOKE UP IN
the straw in his den, he licked his teeth, feeling where his fangs had been. His body had returned to that of a boy. He looked out at the sky. The sun was shining. It would be a whole month until his next transformation.

Outside his door, a pair of jeans and a T-shirt were folded, ready for him to put on. He got dressed, then washed his face in a bucket of water and headed up the track to Farraway Hall.

Tiana came flying to meet him, weaving along the paddock fence. “Morning, Ulf,” she said.

“Morning, Tiana.”

“You were brave last night,” she told him.

“Was I?” Ulf asked.

“Don't you remember? You saved Orson and Dr. Fielding,
and
the sea monster.”

Ulf smiled. “Where is Dr. Fielding?” he asked.

“She's with Orson in the flower garden. We're all waiting for you.”

Tiana flew off and Ulf followed her to the garden at the back of Farraway Hall. Dr. Fielding was holding a wreath of flowers. Orson was leaning on a shovel next to a pile of earth. His hair was combed and he was wearing his best shirt.

“Good morning, Ulf,” they both said.

In the flower garden, Ulf saw a deep rectangular hole dug in the ground.

“It's a grave,” Tiana whispered. “It's for Professor Farraway.”

“Druce showed us the room,” Dr. Fielding said,
putting her arm around Ulf's shoulder. “Baron Marackai must have brought that key with him. I didn't give it to him. That room has been locked for years.”

Orson picked up a long canvas bundle that lay beside the grave.

“The Professor's bones,” Tiana whispered.

Dr. Fielding had wrapped Professor Farraway's skeleton in a ship's sail from the Room of Curiosities. “He deserves a proper funeral,” she said.

Ulf, Dr. Fielding and Tiana watched as Orson gently laid the wrapped bones into the hole in the ground. Then he took his shovel and covered them with earth.

“The Professor was murdered,” Ulf said. “He came home from his expedition with a flask of sea-monster venom.”

Ulf looked into the grave. “He discovered Marackai's beast collection and told Marackai to
leave. Marackai used the venom to poison him.”

Orson looked at Ulf. “Thank you for saving my life, Ulf,” he said.

“Marackai probably thought that if he killed his father then this place would be his,” Dr. Fielding said. “He can't have known the Professor would leave him nothing in his will.”

“He wanted to take it from us,” Ulf said.

“And he would have succeeded if it hadn't been for you, Ulf.”

Dr. Fielding held Ulf's hand as they stood at the graveside and said farewell to Professor Farraway.

“Bye-bye, Professor,” a voice gurgled.

Ulf looked back at the house and saw Druce the gargoyle leering down from the edge of the rooftop. Druce bowed his head then turned to stone.

Orson picked up a large slab of rock, one that he'd fetched from Troll Crag. He stood it upright at one end of the grave. On it he'd carved the words:

 

PROFESSOR FARRAWAY

RIP

 

Dr. Fielding bent down, placing her wreath of flowers on the grave. “You would have been proud of Ulf, Professor,” she whispered.

Tiana flew down and laid a petal beside it.

Ulf traced the letters on the gravestone with his finger. “What does RIP mean?” he asked.

“Rest in peace,” Tiana told him.

“He'll like it in the flower garden,” Orson said. “And he'll make good fertilizer, too.” The giant flattened the earth with the back of his shovel, then walked away from the grave.

“Come on, Ulf,” Dr. Fielding said, putting her hand on his shoulder.

Ulf stood up, then looked to the window of the library. “I just need to do something,” he said.

He walked to the house and went inside, heading up the stairs and along the Gallery of Science. He
weaved through the Room of Curiosities to the door of the library. He stepped inside.

Ulf could hear the haunted rocking chair rocking back and forth in the corner. He crept to the far wall and stood in front of the painting. In the gloom he could still make out the Professor's friendly eyes.

“You can rest in peace now, Professor. We know what happened.”

Just then, the candle flickered on.

“Professor?”

The candle was lighting up the painting.

“It's over, Professor,” Ulf said. “Marackai's gone.”

The candle flickered.

In front of it, on the table, an invisible finger was writing in the dust:

 

HE'LL NEVER GIVE UP.

The end…for now