The Glass Castle (18 page)

The inky sky made it impossible to see clearly. “Kate, I don’t see anything I recognize.”

“Just keep looking, Avery.”

She narrowed her eyes and looked again.

Suddenly, the sky exploded with red, blue, and green fireworks, bursts that rocked the village and showered trails of glitter to celebrate Christmas.

“Angelina loves fireworks,” Kate said with a sigh, “so the king ordered these for her. Maybe he does love her after all. Isn’t it wonderful? Maybe their marriage
will
be good for the castle!”

Avery knew with a sinking feeling that this was all Kate had in mind.

No whaleboat. No promise of my father coming to my rescue. No word of Henry’s safety.

“Aren’t they beautiful?” Kate asked, but Avery couldn’t speak.

He is doing fine. He probably spent Christmas with friends in the village.

But Avery knew she should stop being so naive.

No help is on the way. No one is coming to rescue you.

The choice was simple, and the sooner she acknowledged it the better:
Run to save your family or stay to save your life.

With nothing to lose, it was time to risk everything.

Late the next afternoon, sitting at the long wooden table, Avery spread a stack of blank pages before her in the otherwise empty dining room and listed what she knew about both the past and current queens, putting a star beside every fact she had learned from Kate.

Seeing it in writing, she realized Kate had been the source of nearly all her information.

Impossible that she would know all of this information just by paying attention.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Tuck said, dropping into a chair beside her. “Do you have a moment?”

How could she refuse? She twisted the gold ring on her right hand nervously. And anyway, she didn’t want to make a show of gathering her papers, so she shrugged and smiled.

“The king has commissioned you to write the theme song for the Olympiad—”

“So you announced. Is that still the plan, considering the fact that I almost killed Angelina the last time I was at the organ?”

Tuck threw his head back and laughed. “You didn’t
almost kill her.
Not to mention, the king has no idea who you are. All he knows is that he loves your music. He didn’t even order an investigation after the incident with Angelina. I just wanted to make sure you were planning something very special. Make it the best work you’ve ever done.”

Avery assured Tuck she was taking it seriously, and he quickly left, but the conversation got her thinking. Her nagging suspicion was looking more likely all the time. Was it possible that the king was not the driving force behind the kids’ captivity? Could it be Angelina alone? She had responded to the note in her dress without even a whiff of alarm—in fact, she had smiled! And she didn’t share the note with the king. If he were in on the secret, she would have shared the message with him.

Her mind continued to travel over recent events.

If the king and Angelina were united, shouldn’t he have been equally enraged about Queen Elizabeth’s song being played at the Christmas banquet? But he ordered no investigation, let alone any word of potential punishment. What if he still cherished Queen Elizabeth as Avery suspected he did?

Avery looked at her notes. And a deep-seated certainty took root within her.

My mother knew about this castle because she knew Queen Elizabeth. How else could she have Queen Elizabeth’s necklace in her possession? And if Queen Elizabeth is sister to Queen Angelina, my mother likely knew her, too. I need to find my father so he can help me put the pieces together and save the thirteen-year-olds.

Or else I need to find my mother.

Avery felt confident the king still harbored feelings for his first wife. He and Angelina clearly had separate agendas—Avery only needed to figure out what they were before something terrible happened to the king and Angelina was left in charge.

That night, Kate woke Avery from a sound sleep—
again
—but judging from Kate’s demeanor, this was no adventure. Something was wrong.

“What now?” Avery whispered.

“Just put this on and come with me.” Kate handed her the black dress she had worn the day before and led her all the way to the dining room.

There Ilsa sat between Tuck and Kendrick, sobbing, the sound raw and horrible.

Kate finally explained. “We believe her brother was discovered.”

“Discovered? By whom?”

“We don’t know,” Tuck said. “He disappeared while scouting during the king’s Christmas banquet. Normally he tracks the king, but tonight he was tracking Angelina.”

“He’s the best you have,” Avery said. “Maybe he’s onto something and needs more time.”

Tuck shook his head.

It was Kendrick who spoke next. “Angelina went to bed hours ago. No one has seen or heard from him since the fireworks. He never came to bed. It’s not like him. We can only assume the worst.”

“The Forbidden City?” Avery whispered, but the others just looked away as Ilsa’s wailing reached a nonhuman pitch. Avery raised her voice. “So what do we do now?”

“We need a plan,” Tuck said. “We don’t know what he’ll tell whoever has him. Angelina’s staff is very good at making people talk. We could all be in danger.”

“Edward,” Ilsa said miserably, liquid leaking from her eyes and nose. “His name is Edward, Tuck. I know all you care about is your own safety, but Edward is the last person I have on this earth, especially since you abandoned our family.”

Tuck reddened, and Avery’s thoughts raced to the drawing in the wooden box.

She tucked her hand with the crown ring behind her back.

“You’ve known Edward all your life, and you haven’t even mentioned his name tonight,” Ilsa said. “I don’t care what he means to the rest of you. He’s my brother, and I need him. Our first strategy should not be protecting the rest of us—it should be getting him back.”

These words brought another round of tears.

“You’re right,” Avery said. “We will find a way.” She pulled out a chair and sat across from Ilsa. “Tuck, Kendrick, what do we need to do to bring Edward back?”

“You’re so stupid!” Ilsa blurted, leaping from her chair and marching toward the hall.

Kate started after her, but Tuck put up a hand to stop her. “Don’t go. It won’t help.”

Kendrick added, “We need to stay up and talk this through. Kate, do you know where we could get some coffee?”

Kate nodded, and together they disappeared.

With Kate and Kendrick out of the room, Avery said quietly, “Pardon me for asking, Tuck, but what did she mean about you abandoning her family?”

“It’s a personal thing.”

“Right. It’s none of my busi—”

“No, no. It’s just that a year ago or so, she and I were in a silly little play in our village where we played Romeo and Juliet. Somebody drew a picture of us, and she got it in her head that it was meant to be someday, you know? We’ve known each other our entire lives, but…”

Avery felt something like relief wash over her. The drawing in the rosewood box wasn’t of a wedding at all—it was of a play.

“I love plays,” she said brightly.

Tuck only gave her a curious look.

Soon they all sat nursing hot mugs.

“If Edward was caught by adults, he won’t be back,” Tuck said, “and Ilsa knows it. I’m sorry, but protecting the rest of the kids isn’t disrespecting him. It’s the right thing to do. It’s the job we’ve pledged to do as a cabinet.”

“We need to find a place to hide if our location is compromised,” Kendrick said.

“The passageways,” Avery said.

“Have you had any success locating the tunnels?” Tuck asked.

All eyes turned to Avery.

“My mother always talked about tunnels in the castle. I’ve never seen them, but everything else she said has proven to be true. According to her stories, this castle sits atop an intricate system of tunnels that travels various outlets within the village. If the rumors are correct, the largest tunnel snakes its way under the Salt Sea and ends within the walls of a tiny, beautiful chapel in the village where country girls get married.”

She made eye contact with Tuck, and her face went crimson.

This time when he smiled she didn’t look away.

Chapter 28

The View from the Turret

Breakfast was a somber event as news of Edward’s disappearance made its way around the table. The seat where he normally sat was left empty in his honor. Questions like
What will happen to him?
and
Are we all in danger?
rose with the steam from the kids’ mugs.

But no one had answers.

Ilsa didn’t come to breakfast.

No chess games or marble bartering would fix this latest disappointment.

Ilsa planned a private prayer service for Edward in the chapel upstairs, but she sent a distinct message to Avery via one of the scouts that she was not invited.

By the time Avery finished her meal, all she wanted was to be alone.

“I’m going to be a few minutes late to the shop,” she whispered to Kate, who indicated that wouldn’t be a problem since no one was buying anything today.

Avery made her way back to the bunk room where her pages of careful notes seemed to be calling her name. But when she sat and lifted her pillow, in addition to her notes, she found another carefully folded parcel with a red wax seal. Glancing both ways to be sure no one watched, she found a candle and opened it, smoothing the page on her mattress.

Those words and the ones that followed made Avery’s pulse pound.

Who keeps sending these messages?

It was not until after lunch that something occurred to her. She rushed back to the bunk room and compared the handwriting in the poem to the tiny square of parchment that had been included with the copy of
A Tale of Two Cities
Kendrick had given her on Christmas Day.

Sure enough, it was identical.

Kendrick was sending the secret messages.

Late that afternoon, her mind full of queens, worries about Ilsa’s brother Edward, and confusion over her strange friendship with Kendrick, Avery escaped to the library, determined to find a book about the castle itself and its mysterious tunnels. Maybe part of her hoped she would happen upon Kendrick there, too, or he would happen upon her—so she could ask him to stop sending the parcels. Kendrick was every bit a brother and nothing more.