T-O-R-O-N-T-O
Ambergine and Gargoth crept silently away from the statue of the Greek god, skirting the nearby statues, and moving as quickly as they could. They waddled and ran, Ambergine in the lead, urging Gargoth along.
The man in the white straw hat slammed the window shut and vanished, but they knew he was coming. He would soon be out on the grounds among the statues, trying to find them.
“Where should we go?” Ambergine gasped frantically. Gargoth seemed unable to answer her.
She shook him and looked into his face. “Where? Gargoth, quickly! Where should we hide?”
But he barely seemed to notice her. His eyes were suddenly sullen and clouded, and he would not look at her. She dragged him to the back of a giant rearing horse and rider statue, which blocked them completely from the mansion. She gained them a few moments’ time.
“Gargoth! Look at me,” she began. But he would not. Instead he stared at the dark grass. “We don’t have much time. Gargoth, please!” she whispered. “You must tell me what’s wrong? Why won’t you run?”
He looked at her evenly. “You can’t be real,” he said. “You simply cannot be here. It has been too long. One hundred and forty years, or more? I’ve lost count. I have been abandoned alone for too long to believe it is really you.” He turned away from her. “I have finally gone mad. Or perhaps I’ve died at last.” He squatted on his haunches and refused to move. Ambergine grew desperate.
“No! No, Gargoth. You cannot give up now! You
must
believe it’s me!” She positioned herself directly in front of him and held his face next to hers. “You and I share the mark of the stonemason Tallus. I know your first human friend was a boy named Philip. I know you left your tiny English village with him to go to France. I know you loved Mozart, and you fed apples to beggar children, and I know…” she hesitated, “and I know you can’t fly.”
Gargoth snorted with disgust. “Well, you seem to know much about me. I suppose you are Ambergine, after all these years. But…”
He was interrupted by a low laugh. He spun around to see the man in the white straw hat standing in the grass behind him.
“So, you have a friend, do you? How nice of her to drop in!” the man said.
Gargoth shook with fear, but Ambergine was already tugging at him, urging him to run. The gargoyles turned and fled, moving as quickly as they could along the dark grass. They darted behind statue after statue as the man stumbled after them. They hid and ran off in a different direction each time he fumbled past them in the dark. Despite his thick glasses, he really did not see very well at all.
Once the man came upon them, but they both froze so still that he didn’t see them. He saw only statues.
Another time he found their hiding spot and reached down to grab Gargoth, but Ambergine flew up in his face and spread her wings, screaming. He was so surprised that he jumped back, and Gargoth escaped.
All that long night, the two gargoyles eluded the man in the straw hat, again and again, in an endless game of cat-and-mouse through the huge walled garden. It was an exhausting, terrifying chase, and by dawn Ambergine wasn’t sure how much longer she could run.
As morning came, they were hiding beside a long, low building. They were weary and nearly out of places to hide. The man was once again slowly working his way toward them, looking behind each statue then creeping along to the next.
It was made worse by the fact that he was teasing Gargoth as he crept along. “Gargoth, you know you can’t escape me! You’ll never really get away from me! Why even try?” he yelled. Gargoth scowled but stayed silent.
Just then a delivery truck pulled up to the door of the building near them and beeped its horn. A man in a work suit came out and waved the truck inside.
“Come on!” whispered Ambergine, pulling Gargoth along. They scurried into the building, just as the door shut with a clang behind them.
Gargoth was petrified. They were standing in a long, narrow hallway, stacked with boxes. The truck driver and the other man were loading the boxes into the back of the truck.
“
Shhh
. Quiet,” Ambergine whispered. Just then, one of the men turned and saw the gargoyles hiding in the hall.
“Hey! What are these doing there?” The man trotted toward them. Ambergine was about to run, but Gargoth shook his head a fraction. There was no time to run and nowhere to go anyway. Both gargoyles froze as the man reached them and grabbed them roughly.
“Look! What should we do with these two? They must have fallen out of one of these boxes…”
The other man walked up and looked at the two gargoyles. He whistled and ran his hand over Gargoth’s wings. “Wow. They look really real, don’t they? The boss must be making them from something special.” He looked at the two little gargoyles for a moment then at the stack of boxes beside him.
“I don’t know where they came from, but just put them in one of these boxes. I’m already late. I’ve got to get going.”
The first man shrugged and lifted the lid of the nearest box, carelessly tossing the two gargoyles inside. He resealed the lid and walked away.
Inside the box, Ambergine shuddered. They were surrounded by statues of Gargoth, packed in straw.
“What are these?” she whispered.
“Stolen images. Me. For years, decades, the man made statues that look just like me and sent them all over the world. All without my permission, of course.”
“That’s awful,” was all she could think to say. Gargoth had a stony expression and looked too much like the cold, still statues in the box all around him. It frightened her.
“Why didn’t you run away?” she asked, then immediat-ely regretted it.
Gargoth’s face turned into a stormy, angry grimace, his voice a low growl. “I tried many times, but as a boy he carried me in a cage everywhere he went. When he was a man, he would sometimes let me out, but he kept a very close eye on me. Or he kept me chained, as I was tonight.”
Her eyes filled with tears, and she gently took Gargoth’s claw in hers. She didn’t know what to say, so she changed the subject.
“Where do you think we’re going?” she whispered as quietly as she could.
“There’s a word on the box, T-O-R-O-N-T-O. Do you know where that is?” Gargoth whispered back.
“No. I hope it’s somewhere warm and sunny though,” she replied, then fell silent. Just then the men lifted their box into the back of the truck.
“That’s it for now,” said the first man.
“Okay. See you next week,” said the other.
With that, the truck pulled out of the building and drove away.
The River
As the sun rose over the horizon, Cassandra’s little van sped into the outskirts of New York City, and immediately pulled into a twenty-four-hour rest stop off the highway. There was a huge river in front of them, with the giant city on the other side. An enormous bridge spanned the river before them. It was morning now, and the roads were filled with commuters.
Cassandra got out of the van, stretched, and handed Katherine a map. “I’m going to get some breakfast for us. Maybe you should wake up Ambergine and get her to show you where we need to go on this map.”
Katherine sat on a picnic bench near the van, poring over the map. The yellow canvas backpack was resting on the table next to her. It was a beautiful sunny morning. It was going to be a really hot day.
“So, where do you think we should start looking, Ambergine?” she asked. The little gargoyle was peering at the map through the holes in the backpack, but she wasn’t much help.
“I’m really not sure. I can’t see anything from in here, and that map doesn’t make any sense to me. If I could just get out of here, and look around, I might be able to get my bearings a little. At least enough to give us the general direction…”
Katherine opened the bag and took Ambergine out. “Be still, look like a statue,” she whispered.
The little gargoyle sat perfectly still in Katherine’s arms, looking out at the grand view of the mighty Hudson River, the expanse of bridge and the view of New York City in the distance.
“Well?” Katherine asked. “Any ideas?”
Ambergine’s dark eyes were wide with surprise. “Why didn’t you tell me we were beside the river, Katherine?” she said. “The river will guide us.”
Ambergine knew the river would take them to their lost friend and companion eventually, but she wasn’t as sure as she seemed that she would be able to find him. Driving a van on a roadway wasn’t the same as flying over treetops.
And even if they did find the dark mansion, she wasn’t sure she wanted to tell Katherine and Cassandra what they would find there.
The Dark Mansion
The van crept along the dark, winding road, high above the city. They had been driving much of the day, following the banks of the Hudson River. They had only stopped once, for lunch. It was late evening now, and Katherine and Cassandra were tired, grumpy and a little short-tempered.
Katherine was hanging out the window, holding a flashlight and looking up into the trees.
“I can’t see her, slow down!” she said to Cassandra in the driver’s seat.
The van slowed, and Katherine shone her flashlight into the trees. “We’ve lost her again. Pull over.” The van pulled off the road into a lookout spot.
Below them sprawled the vast city, rolling out to the ocean in the distance. Millions of lights blazed from thousands and thousands upon thousands of buildings, factories and houses. They were too far away to hear anything, but the city was alive. New York was the city that never slept.
Katherine was too tired to notice. She got out of the van and stood waiting, looking up into the trees. Within a few minutes, they heard a crashing from the treetops, then Ambergine appeared in the road beside her, looking tired and weary. All day she had given good enough directions on how to find the right road from inside the van, but now it was night-time, she could no longer see the road well enough. Instead, they had to follow her as she flew ahead of them in the treetops.
“It’s this way, I think,” Ambergine said and flew off again.
Katherine yelled after her, “Hey, shouldn’t you take a break? Have something to drink? Maybe eat a little?” but the gargoyle didn’t hear her. She was off into the treetops, continuing her search.
“I know I could use a break,” Katherine grumbled, then sighed and climbed wearily back into the van, pointing out the new direction to Cassandra. “She went that way.”
It wasn’t easy following a small, lumbering gargoyle as she led the way up a hilly road. It was made even more difficult by Cassandra’s driving, which wasn’t great. She’d had only a very short nap that morning and was clearly very tired. The van lurched and jumped and staggered up the dark road, with Katherine hanging dangerously out the window, peering up into the trees.
Every once in a while, Ambergine would appear hovering in the road ahead of them and point them down a different turnoff, then she would disappear again into the treetops.
Occasionally they would lose sight of the gargoyle altogether and would have to wait beside the road until she doubled back and found them. It was tedious, tiring work for Cassandra and Katherine in the van, and even more tiring for Ambergine, who had flown for hours. She was nearing exhaustion.
Even worse, now and then a “helpful” local would notice that they were driving very slowly and looking lost (although it was a little odd that they were looking up into the trees to find their way) and would stop to offer them assistance. Katherine and Cassandra had to pretend that they were French-Canadian and didn’t speak any English to get rid of one particularly nosy person.
But as it got darker and the winding road took them further and further from the city, there were fewer and fewer cars passing by them, then fewer and fewer houses altogether.
Eventually, by midnight, it was pitch black, and the occupants of the little van were completely alone, high above the city on a dark, dangerous road.
They had lost sight of Ambergine once again, for the longest time so far. Katherine was straining out the window looking up, when…BANG!
She and Cassandra both jumped. Katherine banged her head on the window frame.
“OUCH!”
“What the…” Cassandra slammed on the brakes and pulled the van over to the side of the road. Katherine got out.
Ambergine was sitting on the top of the van, exhausted and with a very frightened look on her face. “Sorry,” she said, “I didn’t mean to land so hard. I’ve found it. I’ve found the dark mansion. It’s about five minutes ahead on the right. It’s pitch black, though, so I don’t think anyone is home. It looks abandoned and empty…” Her voice grew very quiet.
Katherine and Ambergine looked at each other. What if no one
was
home? What if he wasn’t there?
Katherine called inside the van, “It’s okay! It’s Ambergine. She’s found the dark mansion. We’re almost there…”
For the next half hour, the three friends sat outside in the hot night air, talking and thinking up a plan.
How were they going to get inside the dark mansion? How were they going to grab Gargoth, if and when they found him?
And how were they going to convince the man in the white straw hat to let them take him with them?
It was going to take something sneaky and tricky and likely a little dangerous. And probably quite brave.
Ambergine, who had flown for decades and decades and decades in search of Gargoth, who never gave up and who certainly wasn’t about to give up now, would be brave enough for them all.
Statues in the Night
The van was parked off in the darkness, just out of sight of the dark mansion. Cassandra and Katherine had searched through the boxes in the back of the van and come up with some strange looking clothes; Cassandra was wearing a big floppy felt hat, tiny owlish reading glasses and a large, brightly-coloured Hawaiian shirt hanging over her long flowery skirt. She looked like a giant flowering plant.
They were really hoping that she looked like a lost tourist, or at least nothing like Cassandra Daye. Her height was a problem though. She found an old cane in the back of the van and hunched over it, hoping not to look so tall. She was going to pretend to be a lost French-Canadian tourist, separated from her tour bus, which seemed unlikely, but it was the best plan they could come up with.
Katherine was using black makeup from an old makeup kit she found in the van, covering her cheeks and nose. She looked like a commando on a night raid.
Which is, in fact, what she was.
Ambergine was waiting in the woods beside the wall of the garden when Cassandra and Katherine joined her. Ambergine shot a strange look at Cassandra, but said only, “Good. Tell her she looks really…different. Perhaps he won’t know who she is.”
“Everyone know what happens next?” Katherine asked. They all nodded.
“Okay, here goes. Good luck,” said Cassandra. She hugged Katherine, shook Ambergine’s claw, then toddled off past the huge gates and up the dark, strange driveway to knock on the door of Gargoth’s greatest enemy.
Katherine watched as Cassandra, the only bit of colour and light against the backdrop of the enormous, scary mansion, moved slowly away down the driveway toward the gigantic front door. She felt a sudden pang of fear. What were they getting themselves into?
As Cassandra disappeared into the gloom, Katherine and Ambergine slipped quietly over the wall of the huge garden and began to creep slowly along behind the bushes and trees and statues to the back of the enormous house.
And what a bizarre house it was. It stood at the edge of the valley, looking down across the vast plain toward New York City in the distance. It had colossal windows, a towering chimney, and slanted rooftops with ivy climbing up every wall. On every corner of the house and covering almost every inch of grass was a giant statue, of a goddess, or a lion, or a horse or a gryphon.
Or a gargoyle.
There were gargoyles
everywhere
, thousands of them. And every single one of them looked exactly like Gargoth.
Katherine was kneeling at the bottom of a statue of Gargoth rowing a boat.
“How strange. He’s everywhere, but we don’t know where he is. This is really weird,” she whispered to Ambergine. She was creeping along the damp grass behind Ambergine, who was hovering just above the ground. They were moving quietly from statue to statue, staying hidden from view.
The next statue was of Gargoth playing tennis. The one after that was of him playing a guitar. And still another was of him wearing a straw hat with a long piece of grass in his teeth, painting a fence.
And on and on it went. They all looked just like Gargoth, but none of them was doing anything that Gargoth would do. Not the Gargoth she knew, anyway.
Poor Gargoth,
she thought.
I’m starting to see why he was so upset about this place… It’s really creepy…
Just then Katherine crept past a length of thick, heavy chain hanging from a statue of Gargoth with a fishing rod. She winced and drew in her breath: this was where the man in the white straw hat kept Gargoth chained. It was like a house of horrors.
As they crept along, Katherine saw a group of long, low buildings at the edge of the forest. She could barely make them out in the gloom. There was something disturbing and dark about them.
“Ambergine, is that the building you and Gargoth escaped from?” she whispered.
Ambergine didn’t even look. “Yes, that’s it. That’s a night I’d like to forget. There was a
lot
of screaming going on.”
“Who was screaming?”
“The man in the white straw hat. Just as we were driving off in the back of the truck, we could hear him screaming, ‘Where is he? Where is he?’ Luckily the truck driver didn’t hear him, since he was wearing those music things in his ears, and kept going. But the man in the white straw hat knew where the truck was headed.” Ambergine shuddered. She shook her head as though to clear the memory.
They began creeping along from statue to statue again, slowly making their way to the back of the mansion. Katherine tried not to glance over at the low, dark buildings in the distance. She couldn’t help it; they made her shudder.
After a while, Ambergine stopped and motioned to her to sit behind a huge statue of an angel. It hid them completely from the windows of the house.
“Wait here,” the gargoyle whispered. “This spot is safe for now… I’m going for a closer look, but you can’t come…”
She flew carefully toward the back of the mansion, hovering over a large, dark pool of water with a giant statue of a Greek god in the middle. It was Triton, with a huge, slippery-looking merman tail and a three-pronged Trident in his hand. She was hovering near his tail, looking in the window of a green sitting room.
Meanwhile, Cassandra had made it to the front door. She took a deep breath then pulled the enormous chain. A distant BONG rang out inside the mansion.
Nothing happened.
She pulled it again, harder this time.
Another deep BONGGGG rang out, but still no one came to the door.
Cassandra scratched her nose and looked around. She shrugged. “I guess I’ll have a seat,” she said to herself.
There were two garden seats off to one side of the front door. Cassandra was just about to lower herself into one of them when the front door suddenly opened. She jumped to her feet.
The man in the white straw hat was standing there, his thick glasses reflecting the rising moon. “Cassandra Daye. How lovely that you could come to my little home on the mountain. I am The Collector. Please come in,” he said.
The Collector? What kind of a name is that?
She looked at him, then stepped inside. “So much for the disguise,” she thought as she crossed the dark threshold. What else could she do?