The Menagerie (16 page)

TWENTY-SEVEN

I
t took five of them to drag Yump's cage from the garage to the griffin enclosure.

“Yump?” Zoe said to Logan. “Seriously? That's the first name that popped into your head?”

“It just seemed right for him,” Logan said. “Sorry it's not as cute as Roly-Poly.”

Matthew laughed, and Zoe glared at them both.

DARLING SON!
Riff bellowed, galloping to the gate as they came in.
Oh, NO! What is wrong with him? What terrible fate has befallen him in the perilous world?

“Well, for starters, he ate all the food in Xanadu,” Zoe said.

“And then we sedated him to get him here,” Matthew added. “He'll wake up fine tomorrow.” He opened the cage door, and Blue helped him lift the griffin onto the ground. Riff hovered over them, flapping his wings so leaves swirled everywhere.

I will stand guard until he awakens,
he pledged firmly. He sat down and fixed his gaze on the red griffin cub.

“Just to warn you, he might be a little upset to be here,” Logan said. “And his name is Yump. Squorp, don't you dare steal that chocolate syrup from him.” The golden griffin cub jumped back from his sleeping brother with an innocent air.

ME? Would Squorp do that?
He narrowed his eyes at Logan.
Hmm. Treasure for Clink.
The griffin swung his head around to where his bigger sister was crouched outside the cave, the golden bracelet carefully positioned between her paws.
Pirate booty for Clonk. Chocolate for Yump. ZERO BUPKES SQUAT for Squorp!

“I'm working on that,” Logan promised. “This is what I have for now.” He crouched to slip Squorp the rest of the hamburger meat.

Cow! Cow! Cow!
Squorp did a happy, prancing dance around Logan and nosed his hand gratefully.

Oh,
Nira said, emerging from the cave. Flurp and Clonk were riding on her back, clutching her snowy white wings and fur. Nira eyed Yump's sleeping form.
Hooray. More of my children are back.

Squorp!
Flurp cried.
New game! Let's play Mom's a tree and first one to climb to the top of her head wins!

No!
cried Clonk.
Let's play Mom's tail is a snake and first one to pounce on it and kill it wins!

Better idea!
said Squorp.
Let's play Mom chases us around the boulders and the last one she catches wins and also Mom's tail is a snake so we all attack it as we run by and also if she stops running we all jump on her and practice flying off her head and also we are aliens.

Yaaaayyyy!
cried Flurp and Clonk.

Nira slowly, expressively, closed her eyes.

“One to go,” Zoe's dad said, patting her side. “Don't worry, Nira. We'll find her soon.”

Wonderful,
Nira said.
I can't wait. With only five cubs I'll have far too much free time.

Logan glanced back sympathetically as Mr. Kahn shut the gate. Riff was still on guard beside sleeping Yump while the other four griffin cubs dragged Nira off to chase them.

“One last cub,” said Mrs. Kahn. “Any ideas, kids?”

Logan and Zoe and Blue exchanged glances. They hadn't yet mentioned the phone conversation they'd overheard in the school library. Logan wondered if Zoe would have to tell her parents about it now. Or maybe she already had, and that's what she and her dad were arguing about.

A piercing shriek echoed across the lake, followed by the sound of something slamming into wood. They all whirled around.

“The unicorns,” Matthew said, bolting for the stable.

Logan and the others pelted after him.
Maybe it's the griffin cub,
Logan thought hopefully.
Maybe she snuck back in and is hiding in there—

It wasn't the griffin cub.

It was Keiko.

The sixth grader was standing between the stalls cursing (Logan guessed) in Japanese and hurling apples at Cleopatra. One of her braids had come undone, and there were streaks of dirt along the sides of her face.

“Keiko, stop!” Mrs. Kahn cried. She jumped forward and grabbed Keiko's arm. “What are you doing?”

“Look what she did to me!” Keiko shouted, wrenching herself free. She pointed to an enormous rip along the sleeve of her jade-colored shirt and a corresponding tiny scratch on her arm. “This shirt cost seventy-five dollars! You do
not
know who you are messing with, horse!”

Seventy-five dollars?!
Logan couldn't believe he'd heard her right.

“On the contrary,” Cleopatra sneered, “I can smell you from a mile away, and you don't scare me at all.”

“We'll see if that's true when I sneak in here one night and
eat
you,” Keiko growled.

“You'd have to catch me first.” Cleopatra tossed her head.

“What were you doing in here in the first place?” Zoe asked Keiko.

Keiko swelled indignantly. “I was doing
your
chores,” she spat. “I was trying to brush these stupid albino donkeys.” She pointed to the currycomb, abandoned on the floor by Cleopatra's hooves.

“I can't imagine where you went wrong,” Charlemagne remarked drily from the other stall. “That's just the attitude royalty always looks for in its servants.”

“I am not your
servant
,” Keiko hissed. She flung another apple at the back wall. “And I am
never
doing this again.” She stormed out of the stable.

“Well, then, mission accomplished,” Charlemagne said smugly.

Cleopatra surveyed the rest of the group. As her cold gaze landed on Logan, he hurriedly bowed, and she paused to give him an approving nod.

“That one may stay and groom me,” she said. “Everyone else is excused.”

Zoe raised her eyebrows at Logan. “Do you know anything about grooming unicorns?” she asked.

“My crazy uncle once gave me a My Little Pony doll,” Logan said. “That's about as close as I've gotten. Cleopatra, could Zoe please stay to advise me? I wouldn't want to do anything wrong.”

Cleopatra sniffed. “Well,” she said. “I suppose. This once. As long as she doesn't speak to me.”

“I think I can manage that,” Zoe muttered.

“I'll go see if Mooncrusher finished the repairs to the outer wall,” Mr. Kahn said, patting Zoe's head. “Thanks for stepping in, Logan.”

Zoe ducked away from his hand and gave him a sharp frown, but he left without responding to her look. Matthew and Mrs. Kahn followed, but Logan was glad to see Blue hop onto a hay bale to keep them company.

“Mom and Dad spent the whole day fighting,” Blue said, yawning. “She says this is all his fault because of the hole in the river grate. He says it wasn't there during their rounds on Thursday or one of the mermaids would have seen it. She says the mermaids would rather comb their hair than do what they're supposed to around here. He says the griffins must have cut the grate open themselves.”

“Squorp said they didn't,” Logan said.

“He must be wrong. How else would it have gotten that way?” Blue said with a shrug.

Zoe led Logan into the stall and picked up the currycomb, showing him how to rub in long, smooth circles along the unicorn's side.

“It's so frightfully, frightfully sad,” Charlemagne said. He hung his head over the stall door to watch Logan. “Everyone will miss those cubs terribly.”

“Hey, we already have five of them back,” Zoe said. “We'll find the other one tonight. Or tomorrow before the agents get here at noon. I know we will.”

Charlemagne stamped his hooves. “Five of them! Back already!”

“You're speaking to the girl-serf,” Cleopatra reminded him.

“Oh, right.” Charlemagne tossed his head and backed up with a snort.

“Cleo, are you ever going to tell us what we did wrong?” Zoe asked.

“It is so obvious, you should be ashamed to ask,” Cleopatra snapped. Logan moved carefully around to her other side.

“So, the last griffin,” he said, trying to change the subject. “How would you describe her? What kind of treasure might she like?”

Zoe shook her head. “No idea. She's quiet—a good listener. And clever; Matthew taught her to play chess already.” She paused, twisting a lock of hair around one finger. “I've been wondering. I still don't think I left that gate unlocked. So
someone
opened it, and whoever let the griffins out must have done it for a reason. What if someone wanted to steal a cub? Maybe that's what happened to her.”

“Like that Tracker,” Blue said. He leaned back against the wall with his hands behind his head. “The one who ran off with the Chinese dragon instead of bringing it here.”

“We don't know that that's what happened,” Zoe said, crouching to retrieve a fallen hoof pick.

Blue shrugged. “Of course people want to steal mythical creatures. Even the animals without powers would sell for a fortune on the black market.”

Cleopatra blew out a skeptical huff of air. “Anyone who buys a griffin cub will learn to regret it.” The unicorn sniffed. “Not that I care about your problems, of course.”

“So if we figure out who let the griffins out,” Zoe said hopefully, “maybe that'll lead us to the last one.”

“Actually,” Logan said, “I have a theory about that. But if I'm right, it won't help us find her.”

“All right, griffin whisperer,” Zoe said. “What's your theory?”

Logan hesitated. It sounded stupid now that he was about to say it. But what if he was right?

“I think,” he said slowly. “I think . . . that Nira let her own cubs out.”

TWENTY-EIGHT

“R
uh-roh,” Zoe said. “The griffin whisperer has lost his mind.” She climbed onto the hay bale beside Blue and leaned back against the wall. It was ridiculous how tired she was. She was too tired even to make fun of Logan's goofy theory properly.

“Wait, I'm serious,” Logan said. “You can't hear the cubs, so you don't realize how they are with her and how tiring it must be. It's like nonstop insanity in there, and she's doing ninety percent of the work even when Riff thinks he's helping. Probably
more
when Riff thinks he's helping. What if she let them out because she needed a break?”

“But the cubs would have seen her do that, wouldn't they?” Blue said.

“Maybe she hopped out of the enclosure while they were asleep, unbolted the door, and then waited for them to find it themselves,” Logan suggested. “She and Riff can fly in and out, right?”

“Sure,” Blue said. “The fence is just for the cubs, or it's supposed to be. That's why we moved them in there.”

Zoe kicked the hay bale with her sneakers. “Nira has been tired and irritable lately,” she said. “But what kind of mom would risk her own cubs like that?”

Logan turned away and ran the comb through Cleopatra's mane. “Maybe she expected them to stay inside the Menagerie. Or maybe not. Some people aren't meant to be moms,” he said quietly.

“Logan—” Zoe started.

“Hey, I know!” Blue interrupted, sitting up suddenly. “We can find out if it was Nira.” He turned to Zoe. “The security tapes.”

“There are security tapes?” Logan ducked under Cleopatra's neck and gave them a wry look. “That wouldn't have been helpful to check sooner?”

“No,” Zoe said. “The cameras are on the inside of the enclosure; there's no shot of the gate from the outside. But you're right; we could see what Nira was doing all night.”

“Let's do it,” Logan said. He stepped out of Cleopatra's stall and bowed. “May we be excused, Cleopatra?”

She tossed her mane. “I suppose.”

The three of them ran back up toward the house. Zoe pulled open the sliding door and led the way into Melissa's office, off the living room.

Blue's class picture from sixth grade hung in a silver frame above her desk; otherwise, the room was all straight edges, clear surfaces, and black and white colors. Melissa's to-do list for the day was printed out, with half the items in bold, and laid neatly next to her desktop computer. Zoe glanced at it and noticed enviously that nearly all the boxes had check marks in them. Zoe had gotten her to-do list strategy from watching Melissa, but she still felt overwhelmed and disorganized practically all the time.

One corner of the room was set up with the security camera video feeds and archives. Zoe sat down and pulled up the week's videos from the griffin enclosure.

“There are the SNAPA agents,” she said, fast-forwarding through Sunday. The two agents zipped around the enclosure like windup cars. Logan leaned over her shoulder, frowning at the screen.

“Wait,” he said. “Pause it for a minute?” He stared at the SNAPA agents and then shook his head. “Never mind.”

“What?” Blue asked.

“That guy seems familiar for some reason,” Logan said, pointing to the male SNAPA agent. “But I can't figure out why.”

Zoe shifted uncomfortably and hit the fast-forward button again. “Here's Thursday. There's me brushing all the cubs.” She slowed the video again and watched the smaller version of herself finish another Harry Potter chapter with Flurp, then get up and pat all the cubs good night.

After she left, all six cubs descended on Nira at once. Their mother had been napping under one of the trees, but twenty-four paws clambering onto her back woke her up pretty quickly. She tried to sit up, yawning and blinking, but two of the cubs knocked her over and started wrestling between her wings. The other four began a mad game of chase that seemed to involve tagging Nira's head or tail every thirty seconds.

“Wow,” Blue said, watching the screen with his arms folded. “That looks exhausting.”

“See?” Logan said. “Poor Nira.” He picked up Melissa's mug—a joke gift from Blue, which said
I'D RATHER HAVE A COWBOY THAN A FISH-MAN
on the side—and started fidgeting with it.

Zoe leaned her chin on her fist. How had she never noticed this before? Why had Logan spotted it in just two visits to the griffin enclosure? To be fair, whenever Zoe went in, the cubs paid attention to her—looking for jellybeans, mostly—so she'd never seen them all focused on Nira like this.

“Where is Riff?” Logan asked.

Blue pointed to a corner of the screen. The father griffin was flopped among the tree branches above the gamboling cubs. He was fast asleep.

“Man. When we get the last griffin back, we are having a family dynamic intervention,” said Zoe.

“Talk to Clink,” Logan suggested, pointing to the largest griffin cub, who was clearly herding the others into playing the games she wanted. “If she learns to play with her dad and give her mom some peace, the others will follow.”

Zoe fast-forwarded slowly through the rest of the evening. Nira tried to give each of the cubs a bath and got thoroughly soaked herself. She tried to feed them dinner and had to break up five separate fights over who had the best or biggest pieces of food. Well after dark, the cubs finally fell asleep one by one. The last one was Squorp, who spent at least two hours bouncing out of the den to bother Nira instead of going to sleep.

At last Nira stood outside the cave entrance, looking at the little cubs all snuggled together in a big fur-pile. She waited five minutes, until she was sure they were all asleep. Then she backed away slowly, as quietly as possible, and settled herself into a pile of dry leaves. With a sigh, she curled up and closed her eyes.

A few moments later, Riff woke up, yawned, stretched, and jumped down to the ground. Dirt billowed up in wisps around his paws as he landed. He blinked at his sleeping wife, then took a step toward the slumbering cubs. Immediately Nira's eyes flew open, and her beak snapped around his tail, yanking him back. Before he could yowl in protest, she shoved him to the ground and clamped her paws around his beak.

Riff gave her an injured look, and when she let go, he slunk off grouchily. Nira watched him sternly for a minute. Finally she went back to sleep.

And that was it.

They went forward slowly through the rest of the night. Nira slept like a log, and after puffing up his chest and pacing like a fierce guardian for an hour, so did Riff. Around two o'clock in the morning, Clink suddenly raised her head and swiveled it toward the gate.

“Look,” Zoe whispered. “I bet she's hearing someone unlock it.”

“So it's not Nira,” Blue pointed out.

“I guess not,” Logan agreed. “And that means it wasn't Zoe's fault, either.”

Zoe resisted the urge to hug him.

There was a pause. Clink looked at her sleeping parents, then back at the gate. With a few sharp jabs of her beak, she woke her siblings. Her wings flapped and her paws gestured as if she was giving them a grand speech—probably about all the treasure in the outside world, Zoe guessed.

The cubs stumbled sleepily behind Clink to the gate, which swung open when she leaned against it. Then they followed her out, vanishing into the dark one by one.

Logan leaned over Zoe's shoulder again. “Wait,” he said. “Go back. What's she doing?” He pointed to the littlest griffin, the one who was still missing. She trailed at the back of the group.

Zoe rewound a few frames and restarted the tape.

As the other cubs followed Clink, the little griffin looked around furtively and then quickly dug a hole next to one of the boulders. She shoved something into it, scooped dirt back over it, and patted it down. Then she hurried after her siblings, none of whom had seen what she had done.

“What was that?” Zoe whispered, half to herself. She brushed the screen with her fingertips. “What were you hiding, little cub?”

“It looks like she was trying to keep some treasure safe,” Blue said.

“Which means she planned to come back,” Logan pointed out. He rolled the mug between his fingers. “That's a good sign. Right?”

“I hope so,” Zoe said. “We have to find out what she buried. Maybe it's a clue.” She rolled the chair away from the desk and stood. Seeing the SNAPA agents on-screen had brought all her anxiety rushing back. They had less than twenty-four hours before the agents returned. At noon tomorrow, the Menagerie could be shut down. Worse than that, if they didn't find the last griffin, SNAPA might decide to kill her.

“Where are you going?” Zoe's mom called as they ran through the living room again. She was setting out plates on the table, which made Zoe want to scream. How could her parents stop for dinner? Why weren't they in a state of total panic? She had never seen them panic, not once in her entire life; but this time it seemed impossible not to.

“Following a hunch,” Zoe called back, sliding the doors shut behind them.

Blue reached the griffin enclosure first and pulled the gate open as Zoe and Logan pelted up behind him. Squorp's head immediately popped up over his mother's wings. Zoe could guess what he was thinking even without Logan's power to hear the cubs:
COW?

“Hi to you, too,” Logan said, grinning. The three of them crouched beside the boulder they had seen in the video. Within ten seconds, all the griffin cubs except Clink had flocked to them, sitting on the boulder or poking their beaks between the boys' knees.

“They'd like to know what we're doing,” Logan said.

“Wow, thanks,” Zoe said, wrestling Clonk's nosy head out of the way. “I could never have guessed that. Ow, Flurp, you are too big to sit on my shoulder anymore.” The dark-gray griffin cub snuggled under Zoe's arm instead.

There was a patch of newly turned-over earth where the littlest griffin had been digging. Logan started to brush it aside, and Squorp bounced down from the boulder, nearly skewering Logan's hand with his claws by accident.

“Okay,” Logan said, sitting back. “You can do it.”

Squorp scraped at the dirt, quickly digging a hole. He moved back a step as they all saw a flash of purple in the ground.

“No way.” Zoe leaned forward and carefully fished out the buried object. It was crusted with dirt, but she recognized the pink, purple, and yellow threads underneath anyway.

This was her friendship bracelet. Jasmin had made it for Zoe two years ago, and Zoe had never taken it off until they stopped being friends. Even then, Zoe had still worn it at home sometimes where Jasmin couldn't see it.

The bracelet had gone missing a few weeks ago. Zoe remembered wearing it on a day when she'd missed Jasmin more than usual and then taking it off at the griffin cubs' bath time. The littlest cub must have nabbed it while Zoe was wrestling with one of the others.

Zoe's hand went to her bare wrist, and a horrible, sinking sensation flooded through her.

“Guys,” she said. “I think I know where the last griffin is.” She took a deep breath and met Blue's eyes. “I think she's gone to the Sterlings'.”