Summer's Cauldron (22 page)

Alex brought his finger to his lips to indicate silence from his companions and then gestured toward the end of the hall and the light from the main museum chamber. Alex and the Guild walked silently down the short hallway, pausing at its terminus, clustered in the shadows at the edge of the light. Alex felt a tap on his shoulder and looked back to see Victoria reaching into one of her vest pockets to remove a small, round mirror. She handed it to Alex silently and he smiled back at her.

Alex knelt to the ground and slowly slid the small mirror around the corner of the wall. The reflection of the mirror gave him a good, if restricted, view of the main exhibit hall of the museum. He saw no movement and no sign of the Mad Mages. Maybe they had already come and gone in the time that had been wasted convincing Eleada and Kendra to stay at the Founders Festival.

Then Alex caught a glimpse of something in the glass of the mirror that raised his hopes. Something draped over the heads of the old Founders Statue in the center of the museum hall. The original statue, cracked and worn from weather and age, had been placed on permanent display in the museum when the new statue replaced it some fifty years ago. Alex turned back to the others.

“I can’t see them, but I think they’re still here,” Alex said quietly. “They’ve got something over the old Founders Statue. If we split into two groups, we can circle around the main hall and take them by surprise. Daphne, Raphael, and Ben, you head left, Nina and I will head right. Victoria and Clark, you stay here in case they try to escape.”

Everyone nodded their soundless assent and Alex slipped around the corner of the wall, Nina at his side. He and his sister silently snuck behind an exhibit case on one side of the hall as Daphne, Rafael, and Ben took up position behind a similar case on the opposite side of the entrance to the back hall.

Alex stuck his head around the case and scanned the museum hall, searching for signs of the Mad Mages. He could see a large canvas bag opened over the old Founders Statue as though someone thought to wrap it up and carry it away, but he could see no trace of the Mad Mages. Alex gestured to his sister and they moved in synchronized steps to a place behind an exhibit, closer to the center of the room.

The Town Museum had been built nearly a hundred years ago for the express purpose of housing and displaying the magical artifacts and common antiques of historical importance to the town of Runewood. The main room was round, with a tall, domed ceiling. Red- and blue-veined marble walls contrasted the pure white marble of the floors. Exhibits of various sizes and shapes were stationed around the room in a rough circular pattern. Some were simple, white-painted wooden display cases with glass-enclosed antiquities from the past, labeled and explained by small typewritten notes beside them.

Other exhibits were larger and displayed alone on platforms raised up to eye level. There were chairs and tools and swords and suits of armor, pocket watches, wooden wands, crystal balls, and old, leather-bound books of various sizes and subjects.

Alex and Nina snuck around the curved back wall of the room, slipping from exhibit to exhibit, moving quickly and quietly, all the while searching the room for any sight of the Mad Mages. In less than a minute, Alex and Nina had circumnavigated half of the circumference of the main hall. Daphne, Rafael, and Ben joined them a moment later.

“Where the gorp are they?” Daphne whispered.

Alex shook his head and shrugged. He was wondering that very thing.

“Cowards,” Ben whispered. “Maybe they chickened out.”

“Maybe they heard us coming,” Rafael said.

“The only way out is through the front door,” Nina said.

“Let’s see what they were up to,” Alex said. He stood up and walked toward the center of the room and the old Founders Statue. As he walked, he looked around the room again. He had hoped his sudden movement in the open would startle any of the Mad Mages who might be hiding and force them to reveal themselves. Unfortunately, the only motion in the room was that of his friends and sister following behind him.

Alex stopped in front of the old Founders Statue in the center of the room. It was much like the statue currently residing in the middle of the fountain at the center of town, but considerably smaller. The stone-carved founders were half size, although the statue looked larger from its perch upon the three-foot high dais where it rested. The five founders stood with their backs to each other in a tight circle, the large canvas bag hanging down to cover their heads and shoulders.

Alex looked to the back hall and saw Clark and Victoria standing in the open. They both raised their hands and shoulders in a silent question. Alex understood easily enough.
What was going on?
He mimicked their motions to indicate he had no idea and turned back to the statue.

“I don’t like this, Lex,” Rafael said, glancing around and sniffing at the air. “Something feels wrong.”

“Where in the name of Uranus’s underwear are they?” Daphne growled. “And what’s with the bag on the heads of the statue?”

“Maybe they were going to steal it?” Nina offered.

“Size,” Ben said, leaning back to stare up at the half covered statue. “How’d they think it would fit in that bag? It’s not nearly big enough, even if they could carry it.”

“That’s not a normal canvas bag,” Alex said looking around and seeing one of the display cases was empty. He jumped up on the dais and examined the bag more closely.

“This is Sylvester’s Sack,” Alex said, holding the edge of the canvas bag between his fingers. Sylvester’s Sack was named after Sylvester Slumphouse, a tinker and trader who had lived and traveled around the valley over two hundred years ago. He had enchanted his bag so he could carry objects of nearly any size and weight within it. It had been passed down through his family for several generations before being bequeathed to the museum as a relic of Runewood’s past

“That explains how they planned to move it,” Rafael said.

“But not where they ran off to,” Daphne said.

“Why?” Ben said. “Doesn’t explain why either.”

“Or why Dillon stayed behind,” Alex said, tugging at the magical bag and trying to pull it free.

“Maybe we should leave it,” Nina said. “Let Mr. Whipplewhip find it and deal with it.” Mr. Whipplewhip was the curator of the Town Museum.

“Then he’ll start asking questions and the Mad Mages might not try again,” Alex said as he tugged at the magical canvas bag, its coarse fibers rubbing his fingers raw. “Almost got it.” If the Mad Mages were convinced no alarm had been raised over their plan, they might try it again, and Alex and the Guild might have another chance at catching them in the act.

“Caught in the act!”

Startled by the voice suddenly booming and echoing through the marble-walled museum, Alex nearly lost his balance and fell. He clutched at the canvas bag, still caught on the head of the Runewood’s ancient elven founder, as his stomach clutched in fear. He had just heard that voice echoing in the town plaza.

Alex got his footing and spun to see where the voice came from. He swallowed and blinked in confusion at what he saw. Mayor McClint stood inside the front entrance of the museum. Beside him stood his son, Dillon, grinning triumphantly. Beside Dillon stood Anna, smiling as peacefully as if she had eaten a large and delicious cake. Beside her stood the rest of the Mad Mages, Mei, Koji, and Earl, looking as though they could barely contain the laughter trying to burst from their chests. Beside them all stood a person who made Alex’s stomach clench twice as hard in fear — his father.

Chapter 16: Feinted and Foiled

“I told you they were trying to steal the old town statue,” Dillon said, puffing his chest out in satisfaction.

“We overhead their plan to steal the old Founders Statue yesterday and followed them when then left the festival,” Anna said, sounding as though she were explaining something to a child. “When we saw them break into the museum, we ran to get you right away.”

It was clear Anna was speaking to Dillon’s father. It was also clear Alex and the Guild had been set up. Alex let go of Sylvester’s Sack and stepped slowly to the floor to stand beside his friends. Victoria and Clark walked up to join him, followed by deputy warlock Kyle Dervis, Alex’s father’s assistant.

“Arrest them,” Mayor McClint bellowed as he strode toward Alex and the Guild.

“We don’t arrest children,” Alex’s father said, his long legs keeping pace beside the mayor.

Alex struggled to control the waves of disparate emotions coursing through his mind and heart as he watched everyone converge in the center of the museum hall. Anger and fear and frustration whirled in his head and fought in his gut. His anger at Dillon and Anna and the Mad Mages felt like a bomb bursting behind his eyes, but it was nothing compared with the anger he felt for allowing himself to be tricked so easily. This must have been Anna’s plan all along. The Mad Mages had lured Alex into spying on them and fed him a story that would ensure he followed them to the museum. He had eaten it up like some starving fool. Maybe that’s what he was. A fool so starved for revenge he couldn’t see how he was being manipulated.

Anna and the Mad Mages led him right into the trap and he followed like some stupid sheep. He should have suspected something when Dillon had stayed behind at the festival stage. The only thing keeping his anger from lashing out and attacking Dillon and Anna was the fear that came from seeing the look on his father’s face. His father seemed torn between mastering his own anger and being overwhelmed by disappointment. Seeing his father’s frustration elicited another emotion from Alex’s heart — shame.

Alex managed to meet his father’s eyes and hold them as the Guild squared off to face the Mad Mages and the mayor. Victoria walked away from Deputy Dervis and stood next to Alex. Clark did the same, standing beside Daphne. Alex was thankful none of the Guild spoke. While he assumed their silence was based in the same fear he felt, he was glad for it nonetheless. This was going to be a tricky situation to explain.

“You may not want to arrest them,” the Mayor said, “but I will see them punished this time.”

“We should put them on trial,” Dillon said with a smirk.

“There may very well be a trial,” Alex father said, turning his gaze to encompass both Dillon and Anna. “However, I will begin by doing what I always do when I suspect a crime has been committed — I will investigate the incident. When I have all the facts, then I will take action and the offending parties will be punished.” Dillon swallowed hard under Alex’s father’s glare. To her credit, Anna, merely smiled.

“What’s to investigate?” the Mayor said. “We caught them red-handed trying to steal the statue.”

“We saw Alex pulling Sylvester’s Sack from the statue when we walked in,” Alex’s father said. Alex was not entirely surprised his father had so quickly identified the true nature of the canvas bag still hanging from the stone head of the town’s elven founder.

“He was putting it on the statue,” Dillon said. “That was the plan. They were going to use the sack and steal the statue and then hide it for a few days so they could pretend to find it and be heroes.”

“We heard Alex say it had been too long since they had been heroes,” Anna said with a caustic look toward Dillon. “He thought the carnival being in town when he pretended to find the statue would make him even more famous.”

Alex literally bit his tongue to keep from speaking. He suspected the other members of the Guild must have been doing something similar to remain quiet.

“A glory hound,” the Mayor said, his loud voice echoing through the museum. “Seems like an open and shut case to me.”

“We haven’t heard what Alex and his friends have to say,” Alex’s father said, turning toward Alex. “Can you explain what you are doing here, Son?”

This was the moment Alex had been waiting for so patiently. His only chance to save himself and the Guild.

“We saw the Mad Mages, Anna and Dillon, acting weird at the festival. Dillon stayed behind and we followed Anna and the others here. When we found the back door open we came in to investigate and found this sack over the statue.”

“Lies,” Mayor McClint said. “It’s the same story in reverse. If that were true, it would have been you leading us here instead of my son.”

“Your son, who conveniently managed to overhear this supposed plan to steal the statue,” Alex’s father said.

“What are you implying?” Mayor McClint said, his voice rising and his face flushing a deep crimson.

“I’m not implying anything,” Alex’s father said. “I’m stating the facts. As I said, I will examine the facts and then decide how to proceed.”

“I’m not sure you’re the right person to examine these facts,” Mayor McClint said. “Not when your son stands accused of the theft of town property.”

“Are you questioning my loyalty to my oath of office?” Alex’s father asked, his eyes stabbing into the mayor.

“Well, no,” Mayor McClint mumbled, stepping back a few paces. “No one questions your integrity. Certainly not.” The mayor took a deep breath and seemed to gather up some of the courage that had so swiftly departed him. “But I want to see action on this, Ravenstar. This will not be swept under the rug.”

“I never sweep anything under the rug,” Alex’s father said, still holding the mayor’s gaze. Then he faced Alex and the Guild. “These children will accompany me back to the Jail House while Deputy Dervis finds their parents so they can be present when we question them about what took place here today. I may want to question Dillon and the Anna and the others as well. I would suggest you return to the festival and let Mr. Whipplewhip know about the break-in. I’m sure he will want to inventory the museum to see if anything has been damaged.”

“I will notify the curator as soon as I can find him,” Mayor McClint said. He stared at Alex’s father for a moment, but when it became clear the town warlock had nothing more to say, the mayor turned and stomped toward the entrance of the museum. “Come along, Dillon.”

Dillon took the time to spare a final smirk for Alex before turning to join his father. Alex noticed Anna seemed to be whispering something to herself as she stared at Alex. It might have been a rune-spell. He would have suspected a curse of some kind, but he knew Anna was too smart to try something like that with his father standing nearby. However, she was also smart enough to trick Alex and the Guild into looking like they were stealing a statue from the town museum, so Alex felt he was justified in being suspicious. Whatever she was doing, she suddenly stopped, smiled briefly, and turned to follow Dillon and the other Mad Mages as they trailed behind Mayor McClint. When they were gone, Alex’s father turned to him.