The Dark Portal (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 3) (6 page)

BOOK: The Dark Portal (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 3)
2.83Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

A lump came into his throat as he
thought of his parents’ portrait hanging over the fireplace back at Griffon Castle. Wishing his father could have been here to be a part of this, Jake dropped his gaze to the floor.

With the key returned to
its pillow, Emrys announced it was time to return it to the Great Vault. At once, nine kilted dwarf guards marched out and gathered to stand in a half circle around the front of the gryphon statue with Emrys. “You might want to step back a bit, laddie.”

Jake obeyed.

“We ten were chosen by your father as his most trusted, loyal dwarves. We are the only ones who can open the Great Vault, and only three of us know how to get there.”

Jake returned to his seat and watched, intrigued, as the ten most loyal dwarves began to sing a very peculiar, unexpected melody, each one chiming in at various intervals.

Archie drew in his breath. “It’s a sound lock!”

Jake furrowed his brow, unsure what that meant,
but the Illuminium eyes on the gryphon statue had begun to glow. As the ten most trusted dwarves finished their song, harmonizing the final bar with impressive precision, the gryphon statue began to rotate aside.

The children watched in astonishment as the heavy statue
rolled away, revealing a hollow, dark space beneath it. When Emrys beckoned to Jake, Archie and Dani and even Isabelle glanced eagerly at him.

“Can they come
, too?” Jake called.

While t
he dwarves in the bleachers chuckled fondly at his request, Emrys cracked another rueful smile. “It’s up to you, my lord. You’re the Master of the Mine! If you trust them.”

“With my lif
e,” Jake declared. “Come on, you lot! Derek, too.”

The kids ran over to the open
ing beneath the gryphon statue, where they were surprised to see a few metal steps leading down to an elevator. Red jumped down and led the way, going into it.

Intrigued, Jake and the others followed. Emrys
beckoned to Ufudd, who came hurrying over to join them.

“But he’s not one of the most trusted dwarves,” Archie pointed out in a delicate tone.

“Oh, but he was for many years. He’s mostly retired now,” Emrys answered.

“Your grandfather appointed me
as one of his ten,” Ufudd informed Jake with an affectionate poke in the stomach, as if he were a cute, chubby baby.

“Grandfather?”
After so many years as an orphan thinking he had no family at all, Jake was thunderstruck at the notion that he had once had a grandfather.

Blimey, it had seemed such a miracle to discover only recently that he had actually had
parents
at one point—before they were murdered—that he had never contemplated the having of actual grandparents until that very moment, when Ufudd said it.

He was still in shock, and Dani was eyeing hi
m with some concern, as Emrys handed off the pillow and key to Ufudd in order to haul the railed metal elevator door shut. The other nine most trusted dwarves waited above, presumably to guard the opening to the Great Vault while they went to see it and put the ceremonial key away.

“You might want to hold on,” the head dwarf advised.

Remembering the cart ride, they did, gripping the wrought-iron rails of the boxy elevator.

Then Emrys threw the switch.

They dropped. They screamed. Except for Derek, who laughed, probably remembering when his old friend, Jake’s dad, Jacob, had brought him here for the first time, too.

Archie let out a loud
“Woo hoo!” after a moment. As an inventor of flying machines, the boy genius was a bit more used to such wild rides than the rest of them.

They gripped the rails, laughing and terrified, as the elevator careened through a series of underground passages. There were lots of intersections shooting off in all directions, though some were blocked with
redoubtable metal doors fortified with rivets.

One such door str
aight ahead separated into four steel panels that retracted into the walls as they zoomed toward it. Jake realized Emrys was operating the doors as well. This one shut with a puff of steam right behind them, then the elevator immediately jolted to the left, then up, then down.

“We change the pattern through these tunnels every week!” Emrys explained, yelling to be heard over the whooshing noise of wind and motion and the occasional clanks of metal on metal, which produced little showers of sparks in their wake. “Anyone taking the wrong path will be instantly vaporized before they
ever reach the Vault.”

“Oh, that’s comforting,” Dani mumbled, holding on for dear life. “I hope he knows the way.”

He did.

Through one l
ast separating door beneath them, they dropped down into the center of a tall underground cavern, where the elevator glided to a halt.

The doors opened with a pleasant
bing!

But amazement was already replacing Jak
e’s dizziness, for when they had come through the last door, it had automatically switched on the gaslights, illuminating the inside of the Great Vault.

All their
jaws dropped.

Emrys stepped out and waited for them to follow, but
all four children stayed motionless for a second, agog at the gleaming gold mountains of treasure all around them.

Jake
could not believe his eyes.

He staggered out of the elevator in an utter daze. He had had no idea that anyone was this rich.

Especially him.

He barely even heard the others laughing in astonishment as he
took a few steps out of the elevator, dazzled and, to his surprise, slightly queasy at the sight of gold ingots piled high on all sides.

He went
down the center walkway, numb with shock and not quite sure how to feel. Half of him was elated at the endless possibilities his fortune represented.

But the other half looked back on all the times he had nearly starved to death—one homeless orphan among many on the streets of London—and that half of him was furious.

What was the point of all his suffering? Wasn’t this gold half the reason his parents had been murdered?

Compared to that loss, this gain was meaningless.

He shook his head, overwhelmed and confused. Money was supposed to solve all a person’s problems—and look at the mounds of it he had!

But his heart sank as he realized
it would never be enough. It could never replace what he had lost. In his most secret heart of hearts, he was still painfully poor, and probably always would be.

Meaningless.

“You all right, kid?” Derek asked softly, appearing out of nowhere to lay a steadying hand on his shoulder.

Jake looked up at him, unable to find his voice.

Derek knew what he had been through. The Guardian, after all, was the one who had finally hunted him down in the rookery and saved him from his wicked Uncle Waldrick, who had tried to have him killed.

Rage filled Jake from out of the blue as he felt the wound afresh of all t
hat he had been deprived. His mother’s hugs, his dad’s advice.

And his grandparents, whoever they were.

It really wasn’t fair.

But if this inheritance was all that he had left, well then,
so be it, he thought bitterly. Might as well make the most of it. And why not?

It’s mine. All mine.
As he glanced around at the treasure on every side, he felt his heart grow cold and hard inside of him, just like it used to when he would go into the market to steal in order to survive.

His jaw clenched with anger, he strode over to pick up the nearest golden cup.

He inspected it while Dani came toward him cautiously, noticing the strange mood that had come over him. He held up the gold cup to show her. “Nice, ain’t it?” he bit out sharply. “You like it? Here, it’s yours.” He thrust it into her hands.

She looked at it in astonishment, marveling at the fortune he had just handed over without a second thought.

Sure, it was enough to buy her dirt-poor family’s whole house back in London, but what did he care?

It was the least she deserved, after all her loyalty to him ever since their rookery days.

He nodded at her, his eyes narrowing, then he grabbed a golden bowl to go with it. “Here. Send this home to your Da. At least you still have some family left.” He turned away with a brooding glower.

“Jake, are you feeling all right?” Dani venture
d.

“Never better!” he barked, whirling around angrily to find all of them staring at
him. “Why wouldn’t I be, when I’ve got all this? Archie, you need some new funding for your research?”

“Er, not really. But…thanks.”

Jake ignored his protest and shoved a gold bar into his hands, then stepped past him. “Isabelle! You always said there should be a proper animal hospital in the village back at Gryphondale? Here, I’ll have one built for you.” When she didn’t take the gold ingot fast enough, he nearly dropped it on her toe.

“Jake?” Derek asked in a worried tone.

“Ah, Derek!” Jake strode toward the tall, muscled warrior. “You saved my life. I’ll have the dwarves forge a blade worthy of you! And a solid gold necklace with jewels for Aunt Ramona, and one for Miss Helena, too! What can I give to Henry? Make me a life-sized statue of a wolf for our tutor,” he ordered Emrys, who blinked in surprise.

“Jake, I’m sure Henry wouldn’t really want that,” Isabelle said gingerly, and for some reason, her gentle protest set him off.

What did she understand about being poor?


I am the seventh Earl of Griffon!”
he roared, turning on her.

He’ll take it from me whether he wants it or not! What, you think I can’t afford it?” He threw an angry gesture at the treasure around them. “Look at all this! It’s mine. I can do whatever I want! Who’s going to stop me? I could buy off half the Parliament if I wanted to—”


Snap out of it, Jake. That’s dangerous talk,” Derek growled.


You can’t tell me what to do. You’re not my father. What do I care what anyone has to say, when I’m
so
bloody rich!” With an angry laugh, his heart aching, Jake dove right off the walkway into a sea of gold coins.

Clanking sounds filled his ears as he sank beneath the surface, laughing carelessl
y, rolling around in his money—aye, swimming in it—and trying to tell himself he was the luckiest bloomin’ mumper in the world.

It was too late now for whining, anyway; he willed himself to believe that this treasure more than made up for what he’d lost. Who needed stupid parents, anyway?

Whoever once said you couldn’t buy happiness was a fool. He’d prove them wrong.

Come to think of it, he thought, drowning in his money, he had the means now to bankrupt every apprentice-master who had ever been cruel to him.

Aye, this gold could be used as a weapon—

All of a sudden, his exultation came to an abrupt halt as a large beak dove into the mound of coins, grabbed the back of his collar, and fished him out by the scruff of his neck. Gold coins rained off him, falling out of his hair and his ears and his pockets and the folds of his clothes as Red pulled him out.

But if Jake assumed his overprotective pet had meant to rescue him, he was sorely mistaken.

Red dropped him on the walkway, tossing him angrily onto his back like a salmon he’d just
caught out of the river for a meal.

BOOK: The Dark Portal (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 3)
2.83Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
Sweetest Temptations by J.C. Valentine
Tempting a Devil by Samantha Kane
Number 8 by Anna Fienberg
Erin's Rebel by Susan Macatee
Mother’s Ruin by Kitty Neale
Melted & Shattered by Emily Eck
The From-Aways by C.J. Hauser