Alfie Bloom and the Talisman Thief (8 page)

“So, Alfie,” said Miss Reynard, suddenly meeting his eyes. “How is the exploring going? Don't tell me you've investigated every inch of this place already?”

“We've found quite a bit,” said Alfie. “Most of
the
rooms on the official plans anyway. Apparently there's loads of stuff that isn't marked on there.”

“Like the eastern tower,” interrupted Amy. “We can't find the way into it anywhere.”

“That sounds like an adventure waiting to happen,” said Miss Reynard. “Would you mind if I helped you look after dinner?”

“Not at all. Brilliant idea!” Alfie's dad chimed in so quickly that Alfie wondered if he had been looking for an excuse to keep her around a little longer.

Alfie and Amy cleared the table and washed the dishes. When they returned to the Great Hall, his dad and Miss Reynard were laying kindling in the huge fireplace.

“Hazel tells me it's tradition to relight the fire on Beltane with a flame taken from the bonfire down in the village,” said Alfie's dad as Miss Reynard arranged wooden logs on top of the kindling.

“That's right,” she added. “During Beltane, cattle would be driven between two fires in the belief that it would keep them free from disease for the next year. At the end of the festival everyone took a bit of the fire back into their own home.”

“Did it work?” asked Alfie.

Miss Reynard shrugged. “It made them feel as
though
they had some form of control over it, so what does it matter?” She wiped her hands on her dress as she finished laying the fire. “There we go – all ready for tomorrow. Now, let's find that door!”

The tower started from the third floor rather than the ground, so Alfie had figured out the most likely place for an entrance would be on that floor. He led the way to where a stone carving of two knights marked the end of the third-floor corridor. A metal bracket holding a torch was fitted to each of the carvings. Alfie realized that he had never seen them lit before. He stood a short way down the corridor and watched as his dad and teacher began to examine the carving to see if there was a way it could be made to open like a door.

“They won't find anything,” he said quietly to Amy. “I've been over it dozens of times. If it is a door, there's no way to open it.”

“What about your talisman?” asked Amy. “You used that to open the entrance to Orin's study, and it opens the big seal thing in the cellars. Surely it must open this door too?”

“Nope. I've been over every inch of the carving. There's nowhere for it to slot into.”

“Did you try looking through the lens?”

Alfie felt his cheeks go red.

“
You didn't, did you?” she laughed.

Making sure Miss Reynard was occupied with the carving, Alfie held the talisman to his eye like a monocle. He trusted his teacher, but was very careful about keeping the talisman hidden now that so many people seemed to be after it. He couldn't see anything unusual as he scrutinized the carving from a distance through the purple lens. Turning to Amy, something on the wall to his left caught his eye. In glowing ink on two bricks were written the numbers one and three. On the wall to the right were bricks bearing the numbers two and four. Now that he had seen them through the lens he noticed that their surface was a little smoother than the other bricks. He tucked the talisman back into his T-shirt.

“What did you see, Al?” asked Amy.

“Step back, Dad,” Alfie called. “I think I can open it.” His dad and teacher moved away from the carving as Alfie pressed each of the bricks in the order they were labelled. They moved very slightly into the wall as he pushed on them. The instant he hit the fourth the two torches held by the carved knights burst into flame. There was a faint clanking from deep within the walls. A hairline gap appeared between the two knights and
they
began to slide apart with a soft grating noise, coming to rest on either side of a dark entrance.

“Amazing!” said Miss Reynard. “However did you figure that out?”

“The bricks were a bit smoother than the others,” said Alfie, thinking quickly. “I wondered what would happen if I pressed them.”

“Very clever!” said Alfie's dad, taking one of the flaming torches from the wall and passing another to Miss Reynard. “Shall we?”

Alfie and Amy rushed through first. The flickering torches revealed a door ahead of them and the start of a spiral staircase to their left. The door led into a large round room.

“It's an armoury!” gasped Miss Reynard as their torches revealed walls lined with swords and spears. Hanging on crude wooden mannequins in the centre of the room were chain-mail shirts, each with a pair of iron gloves. Alfie knew that if Robin was there he would be telling everyone that they were called gauntlets. He pulled a pair on. They were lighter and more flexible than he expected, and the chain mail looked much easier to wear than the suits of armour in the rest of the castle. He had given up trying those on until he was at least a foot taller and a lot stronger.

“
How do I look?” asked Amy, giving a twirl. She was wearing one of the mail shirts with the hood up.

“Like a weird robot,” laughed Alfie.

Amy made a noise like an engine whirring and marched stiffly around the room. Alfie laughed, but secretly wondered why Orin would have so much weaponry and armour in the castle. Did the druid think that Alfie would have use of it all? The castle wasn't exactly turning out to be as safe as he had first imagined it to be.

Alfie's dad was unlocking another door. “If I'm right,” he said as he turned the handle, “This should lead out on to…” he swung the door open, “Yes! The higher battlements.”

Alfie rushed outside and leant over the stone wall to look down on to the lower battlements where he had hidden from Ashford the night the butler was kidnapped. “I've flown up here on Artan but have been looking for the key to that door for ages!” he whispered to Amy. “Now we know where it leads. I can't wait to show Madeleine and Robin.”

The room on the next floor was filled with many different types of clothing from several continents. Miss Reynard informed them that they dated from the mid-1400s to the late 1600s.

“
How wonderful!” she exclaimed as she examined embroidered Persian tunics and elaborate Italian robes from the Renaissance period. “If these belonged to Orin Hopcraft I have no idea how he got them. Hardly anyone left their region, let alone the country, in those days.”

“Disguises?” whispered Amy in Alfie's ear.

“To fit in with the locals on his excursions with Artan,” Alfie grinned. With a flying bearskin rug, Orin was bound to be the most widely travelled person in the Middle Ages, but he couldn't exactly tell Miss Reynard that. He promised to let Miss Reynard borrow some of the clothing for her history lessons and they continued up the stairs.

The next room was so full that they had to squeeze themselves among tables and stone pedestals holding all manner of fantastic objects from around the world. Miss Reynard rushed from item to item with such excitement that she reminded Alfie of Madeleine. There was an ornate turban, a highly detailed coloured glass goblet, pearl and jewelled necklaces and rings, and a very long silk scarf embroidered with every animal Alfie could name – and lots he couldn't.

Under many of the objects were notes written
in
different languages. Miss Reynard was able to translate the ones in more recognizable languages such as French and German. “They're thank-you notes,” she told Alfie. “This one, with the ruby ring, is from Charles VIII of France for healing sores on his legs. This one, with the painting of the hare, is from a German artist, thanking Orin for procuring rare coloured pigments for him.”

“Look at this!” Alfie's dad called out. They joined him as he stood gazing transfixed at a small silver sparrow on a marble plinth. Each of its feathers was finely engraved with tiny details that made it look extremely true to life.

“There's a key,” said Amy, picking up a small metal object from beneath it. “Do you think it can be wound up?”

Alfie found a tiny hole under one of the wings. He clicked the key into place and turned it, removing it when it could turn no more. They all watched the bird with baited breath.

“It blinked!” cried Alfie. The little bird's head suddenly twitched from side to side and then it lifted its wing and groomed the feathers beneath. When it was satisfied, it straightened up, gave its tail feathers a little shake, and then opened its tiny beak to chirrup a beautiful melody.

“
Amazing,” said Alfie's dad as the bird hopped from foot to foot in time with its own tune. “How does it work?”

Amy let out a little yelp as, without warning, the bird launched itself into the air, brushing her cheek with its wing tip as it whizzed past her and circled the room twice before coming back to rest on the plinth. There was a soft whirring noise as it clicked back into its original position and wound down. Alfie smiled to see the childlike wonder on his dad's face.

“Only a true genius would be able to make something like this, Alfie. He or she is a better inventor than I could ever hope to be. There's no note. I wonder if Orin built it?”

“There's something engraved here,” said Alfie, squinting to make out two letters on one of the tail feathers. One was engraved over the other. “There's a D … and the other is … yes, it's an L.”

“DL … DL…” his dad repeated. “Wait! Let me see that!” he almost knocked Alfie over in his haste to see the initials. His face went white and he staggered backwards. Alfie grabbed his dad's arm as his legs appeared to give out.

“I don't believe it … I don't believe it,” he muttered between deep breaths. “It can't be.”

“
Will, are you OK?” asked Miss Reynard, reaching out to touch his shoulder. “What is it?”

“I have to check something.” He dashed to the spiral staircase. “Wait there! I'll be back!” he called as he disappeared.

“What's got into Mr B?” asked Amy as his footsteps faded away below them.

“He usually gets like that when he suddenly thinks of a solution to something he's been working on,” said Alfie, puzzled. “I've never seen him
quite
that excited before though.”

They marvelled at the rest of the room's contents as they waited. Inside a long, soft roll of leather, Alfie found more weapons: two beautifully made wooden bows inlaid with a delicate silver pattern.

“They're beautiful,” said Amy, lifting one of them and pulling back the string with difficulty. “Do you know how to shoot?”

Alfie shook his head. “Granny tried to teach me but I'm always twanging the inside of my elbow. These are going straight to Madeleine and Robin.”

“How very kind of you,” said Miss Reynard. “Just make sure they never bring them to school – even without arrows!” There was a scrambling noise on the stairs and Alfie's dad burst into the room, panting. He was holding a heavy book.

“
I was right!” he laughed. “It wasn't DL, it was LD. Look!” He flipped rapidly through the pages of the book and, below a sketch, he pointed to the two letters entwined in the same way. Alfie suddenly understood. It was his dad's favourite book. They had pored over its pictures together many times. They were by his dad's favourite artist and inventor. He stared wide-eyed at his dad as they both started to laugh in amazement.

“What?” said Amy. “Who's LD?”

Miss Reynard was a bit quicker on the uptake as she showed Amy the book cover.

“No.
Way
!” said Amy. “
Leonardo da Vinci
?”

“It has to be,” Alfie's dad flipped to a page featuring diagrams of a mechanical lion. “He presented this to the king of France in 1515. It walked on its own and its chest opened to reveal a bunch of lilies.”

“He built several clockwork devices before this,” said Miss Reynard, sounding just as excited herself. “One was a robotic knight in armour that could move its arms and sit down.” Alfie noticed his dad gaze at Miss Reynard as though this was the most wonderful thing she could have said. Alfie felt a little spark of jealousy, but it vanished under the waves of his dad's almost delirious
happiness
at the little bird created by da Vinci himself.

“How Orin ended up with a castle of such wonders is completely beyond me,” said Miss Reynard. “If only we could speak to him. What adventures he must have had!”

“If only there was a way,” smiled Alfie.

Beltane

The twins came up to the castle early the following day. Madeleine cried out with delight as Alfie presented her with one of the bows he had found in the eastern tower. She nocked an arrow and drew back the string in one fluid movement.

“Our bows are competition quality, but
these
! These are amazing!”