Chase Tinker & The House of Magic (29 page)

"It does make sense, Janie," said Chase. "The
safest place to hide a secret passage would be in the Keeper's
bedroom."

"It's worth a shot," said James.

"You guys are crazy!" cried Janie. "We don't
even know for sure if those rooms exist. And what if we're caught?
What do you think would happen? Grandfather would kill us, that's
what would happen!"

"Maybe Janie's right," said Andy as he chewed
on a jelly bean. "And when would we be able to do it?"

"We'll wait until he's out of the house,"
said Chase.

"I know when he'll be gone," piped in
Persephone, blushing when their eyes instantly swiveled to her.
"I—I was in the kitchen a bit ago when Mr. Hiram and my mom were
talking about taking Clair to dinner. In Hawaii. This evening."

"What time?" asked James, his eyes lighting
up.

"They were planning on leaving at nine
o'clock because Hawaii is three hours behind us."

"Perfect."

J
anie was doing her
best to lead them to where she thought Grandfather's room was
located.

Chase looked at his watch. "How long do you
think we have?"

"At least a couple hours, I would guess,"
said Persephone.

"I hope we find it way before those guys get
home," said Andy.

"Don't sweat it," said James. "We'll be in
and out of there with time to spare."

Thirty-six minutes, nine wrong turns, and one
secret door later, they arrived at the bottom of an ivory-colored
marble staircase. This led to a wide landing and a set of
cherry-wood doors.

But when they tried climbing the stairs, they
kept walking in the same exact spot.

"Why isn't this working?" asked Chase. He
crossed his arms and glared at the steps.

"Maybe it means we're not supposed to do
this," piped in Andy.

Everyone just ignored him.

"I'll try running up them." Chase leaped onto
the stairs and pumped his legs as fast as possible, but it didn't
take long for him to realize he was going absolutely nowhere.
"This'll never work," he said as he jumped to the floor.

"We just have to figure out the enchantment,"
said Janie. She crossed her arms and frowned at the staircase.
Chase thought she looked like she was solving some kind of
terrible, complicated math problem in her head.

"You have to move backward to go forward,"
she murmured finally.

"What?" exclaimed James. "You're not making
any sense."

"It means we have to walk up the stairs
backwards." She turned and, glancing over her shoulder, started up
the stairs with her back to the doors, easily reaching the top. The
rest of the kids tromped up right after her.

"How the heck did you figure that out?" asked
James when they were all at the top.

She shrugged. "I read a lot."

Chase patted her shoulder. "And, because
she's our Know-it-all-Janie," he said, grinning proudly at her.

"Whatever. This house is way too weird," said
James, scowling darkly.

"It certainly makes life interesting," said
Janie. She smiled back at Chase as she took a deep breath, grasped
the brass handles and shoved open the doors.

The first thing to catch Chase's eye was the
enormous, round window showing a panoramic view of the dark-blue
water, snow-peaked mountains and the city of Seattle; the second, a
shining, gold chest sitting at the foot of a huge, curtained,
four-poster bed, which was so high it needed several stairs to get
into it. Followed by the others, he stepped onto the plush carpet
and slowly entered the spacious room with its antique furnishings
and cozy fireplace.

James headed straight to the chest and tugged
on the lid. "It's locked," he said in annoyance. "And after what
happened before, breaking into it isn't an option."

"We better go then," said Janie, her eyes
darting around the room. "Now that we're here trespassing, I'm
having second thoughts." She turned to leave.

"Wait a second, don't go yet," said Chase. He
pulled the pirate ship key from his pocket. "I still have the key
to the other treasure chests. Maybe it'll work in this one."

James grabbed the key and crammed it into the
lock. When turned, it gave a loud, satisfying click. "Yes!" he
said, throwing back the lid.

They crowded around the chest and gazed down
into it. And down, and down, and down into total darkness.

"It sure looks dark and creepy," said Andy.
"Where do you suppose it leads?"

"I'll know in a minute," said James. Before
anyone was able to stop him, he jumped into the chest and
vanished.

"How could he do that?" exclaimed Persephone.
"He has no idea what's down there."

"Maybe it goes clear through the whole
planet!" said Andy.

"It does look deep," said Janie, a slight
quaver in her voice. They stood in silence for several minutes,
unsure of what to do.

"Hey up there! Can anybody hear me?" called a
far-off voice.

"James! How does it look down there?" yelled
Janie, her voice echoing into the blackness.

"Come on down and see for yourselves! But
watch that first step, it's wild!"

"He made it okay," said Janie, twisting her
fingers together. "Um…I guess I'll go next."

"Are you sure?" asked Chase.

"Yeah…yeah, no problem. It's a piece of
cake." Climbing over the side, she sat stiffly in the corner,
clinging to the edges. "See you guys at the bottom." She gulped. "I
hope." And she vanished into the darkness.

"I suppose I'll go now," said Persephone
while swinging her legs cautiously over the side. Her knuckles were
white as she gripped the lid.

"We'll be right behind you," Chase assured
her.

After she was gone, Chase turned to Andy.
"After you?"

Looking too frightened to speak, Andy nodded
and clambered onto the edge of the chest. Perched on the side like
a large, wide-eyed owl, he gulped, then let go.

Chase paused for several moments. Was this
one of those "damn the consequences" moments Persephone had accused
him of causing? He took a deep breath. Now wasn't a good time to
dwell on that. Plucking the key from the lock, he shoved it into
his pocket and stepped over the edge.

It was a good thing he wasn't afraid of
heights, or else he'd be freaking out at the thought of dropping
into total darkness. But, at least it wasn't a fast drop, and as he
drifted closer to the bottom it became lighter until he landed on a
softly-glowing floor.

"Andy? Janie?"

"We're in here," answered Andy as his head
poked from a doorway. "We found one, Chase. A secret fighting power
room."

He entered the room right as a flashing, blue
lightning bolt slammed into the wall next to him. The wood sizzled
and smoked. He jumped back. "Hey, watch it!"

"Sorry, Cuz," James called from across the
room, snickering. "Thought I'd try out the goods."

"Try them on something else!" snarled
Chase.

"Chase, are you okay?" asked Janie, running
to his side.

"Yeah! But it sure didn't take him long to
figure out the room's power."

"I know," she whispered, glancing at James.
"He's been shooting lightning bolts out of his eyes."

"Out of his eyes? Wow!" He looked at the
wallpaper. Sure enough, the pictures showed exactly that. He was
impressed in spite of his near-zap experience. Looking around, he
saw practice targets everywhere. "I hope he's been firing them at
the targets and not you guys."

"Yeah, but he does have a tendency to get a
little carried away."

"You think?" said Chase, shaking his
head.

"Hey, come on! Let's go find some other
rooms," said James. He dashed out the door.

The other kids followed somewhat
reluctantly.

"He's worse than a little kid on Christmas
morning," growled Andy.

By the time they reached the next room, James
had already figured out how to shoot anything he wanted from his
fingertips.

"
Ropes!
"

Long, golden ropes flew at Chase and Andy and
snaked around them until they were wrapped together tighter than
two butterflies in the same cocoon.

James laughed. "How cool is this!" he said, a
maniacal gleam in his eyes.

"James!" yelled Andy. "We've had enough! Let
us go."

Chase glared at his cousin.
Two can play
at this game
, he thought. Twisting his hand, he pointed his
finger at James and whispered, "
Sticky tape!
" The tape
blasted across the room. James ducked as it whizzed over his head
and smacked into the wall.

"Ha! You missed me!"

"Crap!
More tape!
" Several more pieces
shot from Chase's finger. One landed with a splat right on James's
chuckling mouth, the others wrapped snugly around his ankles.

"Mmmm! Mm! Mmm!" was all James was capable of
saying before he crashed to the floor.

The girls rushed to help Andy and Chase.
"
Knife,
" said Janie. A sharp knife sprouted from her
fingertip and she slit the ropes.

"It's a good thing James hasn't mastered
non-verbal spell commands," said Persephone as she watched him
struggling to rip the tape from his mouth. "He looks mad enough to
fry us."

No one felt guilty leaving James as they
dashed through a side doorway and into the next room. The whole
place was lit by glowing glass symbols in the walls, floor and
ceiling.

"What do you suppose these mean?" asked
Chase. He ran his hand across one of the weirdly shaped patterns.
Its calming warmth radiated through him. It reminded him of the
attic floor.

"They look like the writing on the Relic,
don't you think?" said Janie.

"You're right," he said. "Can anyone tell
what room this is?"

After several minutes, Persephone came up
with the answer. "This is the Enchantment Room! This is where Mr.
Hiram gets the power to enchant things, like Andy's hat."

"How'd you figure it out?" asked Chase.

"Look closely at these wallpaper pictures.
You can see different objects with gold, glowing beams shooting
into them from the symbols. And, I saw pictures of a hat and
sunglasses. So that helped." She smiled.

"Good job, Persephone," he said, returning
her smile.

"Why is this with the fighting powers?" asked
Andy. "It doesn't seem dangerous."

"But it is," said Janie quietly, "since
enchanted objects, like your hat, Andy, or Chase's sunglasses, can
be used by anyone, even non-magical people. So something enchanted
with destroying powers would be disastrous."

"Then we better not let James see this room,"
said Chase. "We don't need him shooting lightning bolts from his
eyes whenever he feels like it."

They cut through another side door and into a
wide hallway.

"Where is he, anyway?" asked Andy. "I thought
he'd be free by this time."

"Maybe he's still stuck in the other room,"
said Chase, grinning. "Get it? Stuck."

"Yeah, yeah, we get it," said Janie, rolling
her eyes. "We're astounded by your brilliance."

Glancing at his watch, Chase had an idea.
"Why don't you guys go ahead? I'll go see if he's okay." He ducked
back into the Enchantment Room. He wasn’t sure how this was done,
but decided it was worth a shot. He pressed the watch against a
glass symbol and concentrated with all his might. "
I enchant
this watch
," he whispered, "
with the power to give the
wearer the ability to conjure and shoot whatever he wishes from his
fingertips
."

Golden beams shot from the symbol and into
the timepiece. It glowed like a dazzling neon sign then returned to
normal. He had to stop himself from testing it. He needed to see
what was up with James, and then find the others.

But James was gone.

Out in the hallway, he heard voices coming
from an open doorway. Hurrying over, he peeked in. "Oh, geez!"

Andy was on his hands and knees, barking like
a dog; Janie was pretending to be a pop star and singing at the top
of her lungs, while Persephone was clinging to James and gazing at
him as if he were the greatest thing since magic.

"James! What the heck are you doing?" he
yelled from the doorway.

"Just having a little fun," James answered.
"This is the Bewitching Room. It gives me the power to have total
mind control over anyone I want."

"Stop it right now!" What was
wrong
with this guy?

"Why don't you come in and make me?" said
James as he forced Andy to gallop in circles.

Chase scowled at his cousin. He was so mad,
he wanted to flip James over and bounce his head on the floor, but
he didn't want to hurt Persephone in the process. He had to get
closer. First, he needed something to distract the big dork.
"Sorry, Andy," he murmured as he mentally lifted his brother and
whisked him across the room.

"Hey!" yelled James, taking his eyes off
Chase.

Not wanting to miss his chance, Chase darted
across the floor and crashed into James and Persephone. The
bewitching spells broke when he punched James right in the eye.

"Ow!" James drew back his fist to return the
punch, but stopped when a blazing flash lit up the room. The air
felt electrified as the five kids were jerked high above the floor
and dangled in midair like a bunch of stringless puppets.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?"

Grandfather stood in the doorway. His arms
were raised and his eyes burned with a terrifying fierceness that
twisted Chase's stomach into painful knots. Oh, man, they were so
dead.

"We were—" began James. Grandfather jerked up
his finger and James's mouth clamped shut. With a quick flick of
his hand, the kids vanished.

Seconds later, they were seated in a row in
front of Grandfather's desk. Chase shifted in the hard chair.
Glancing sideways, he saw Persephone next to him, then Andy, Janie
and lastly, James. They were all sitting as stiff as statues, and
looking kind of green.