CHAPTER TWO
"What are you talking about?" Amy repeated. The words sounded just like English to Sophie. One downside of being a Polyglot was that often she couldn't tell what language someone else—or she—was speaking.
"Natalie," said Sophie, "do you feel . . . different at all?"
"Yeah—my head hurts like crazy. But they stole all the aspirin in the house. I saw them raid the medicine cabinet. What was that Brightened Language you were talking about?"
"Who's 'they'?"
"Was it about me?"
"Natalie, I need to know who 'they' were."
She sighed. "I'd never seen them before. They drugged—" Amy's voice broke. "They drugged my—our—parents and tied them up, then looted the house. Then they disappeared, just like that."
"And what about you?" asked Keefe. "How did you escape?"
"I didn't. They either didn't know I was here or didn't care. I was hiding in my parents' bathroom the whole time."
"Did you see them?" Fitz said. When Amy nodded, he asked, "What did they look like?"
"I never saw their faces," she replied, climbing out of bed. "They were wearing these weird cloak thingies. But the one giving instructions had a woman's voice."
"That would be Lady Gisela," said Sophie, "which means she's back with the Neverseen."
"That's not good," Fitz agreed. "We have to warn Mr. Fo—I mean, Tiergan."
Sophie and Keefe tried to pretend Fitz hadn't almost said Mr. Forkle's name.
Mr. Forkle had been stabbed and killed by Gethen during the Peace Summit in Lumenaria. In his final breaths, he had made Sophie promise to hold onto his Wanderling seed until the time came to plant it.
The seed weighed heavy in the locket around her neck.
"We'll leap to the Black Swan's hideout," Fitz continued. "And let's take Amy as well."
"Natalie," Amy corrected.
"Sorry," said Fitz apologetically. "I understand. I'm still trying to get some of my relatives to stop calling me Fitzroy at family gatherings."
Keefe snorted.
"But—Alluveterre?" Sophie asked. "Isn't that dangerous, now that the Neverseen has Tam's crystal?"
"Tiergan created a new hideout," answered Fitz. He held up his silver pathfinder, which had a blue crystal on the end of it. "It's hidden in Prague."
"Let's go, then." Sophie tried not to feel jealous that Tiergan had told Fitz and not her about this new hideout. She took hold of Amy's hand, but her sister recoiled.
"Wait one second. Did you just say you're taking me to Prague? Isn't that all the way in Italy or something?"
"It's in the—" Sophie started, but Amy cut her off.
"Whatever. Wherever it is, that's really far away. And you're all minors wearing weird clothes and talking like you're crazy people. No way will they let you past security at the airport."
Fitz cracked up.
"We're not flying there, Amy."
"Natalie."
"Ugh, sorry!"
The door to Amy's room opened, and Alden peeked in. "I heard the word 'Prague'. Fitz, let me remind you that you're the only one here with a crystal to Perspeculum. And I must insist that you children do not go chasing the Black Swan unaccompanied."
"And we're coming, too. You need our protection," Sandor and Grizel said from the entryway. Sophie noticed that their fingers were entwined.
"You're not going to let us go if we don't let you come along."
Alden and the goblins nodded.
"Fine," sighed Fitz. "But—"
"Just open the path," said Sophie, remembering how scared she was when she first light leaped. It would be best to spare Amy the anticipation.
Fitz held his pathfinder to the sunlight coming through Amy's window. Sophie grabbed onto her little sister's arm, wrapped her concentration around her, and stepped into the light.
The second their feet touched solid ground, Amy collapsed, muttering a string of obscenities. Sophie made a mental note to remind her not to say things like that in front of the Collective.
"What is this place?" she heard Keefe say. They were standing in front of a magnificent stone building decorated with arches and statues of saints.
"This is the Klementinum," said Sophie, remembering the building from a history textbook. "Interesting place for the Black Swan to choose."
"Why?"
"It's a library."
Amy made a face. "I hate libraries."
"The entrance is in the Astronomical Tower," said Fitz, possibly noticing that Sophie was about to launch into a rant about why libraries were indispensable to human communities. "How do we get there?"
"It's all the way at the top." Sophie pointed at a tower jutting out above all the other buildings. "The real question is, how do we get in?" She gestured toward the security guards who were already looking at the group strangely.
"If only we had Dex's cube thingies to distract them," she sighed.
"Or Tam to hide us in shadows," said Fitz.
"Or we could use this," said Alden, pulling an Obscurer out of his bag. "It should cover all of us."
"I . . . didn't think of that," said Sophie. "Um, that works. Okay. Let's go, I guess?"
"How—many—more—stairs?" Fitz panted as they rounded another bend in the enormous staircase leading to the Klementinum's famous Astronomical Tower. Amy couldn't figure out how to levitate herself, so the whole group was trudging up the stairs so she wouldn't feel bad.
"There are one hundred and seventy-two stairs in total," said Sophie. "And we've already gone up—"
"One hundred and fifty-five," she and Keefe finished at the same time.
"I'm not good at math," Amy groaned.
Fitz shot Sophie a look that seemed to ask, Are you sure this girl is really an elf?
"That's only seventeen more steps to go," said Grizel. "You can handle seventeen steps, can't you?"
"I don't know . . ."
"Let's have a race to the top!" Grizel exclaimed. "Girls against boys—go!"
Grizel and her competitions. Sophie rolled her eyes, but mustered her last bit of strength to sprint the last leg of the staircase. She did not want to dance in silver pants any time soon.
Amy pushed past her and flung open the door to the observatory. Grizel crowed in triumph. "That's two to zero, in our favor!"
"When did you get so fast?" Sophie remembered when Amy couldn't beat her to the remote control, much less the top of one hundred and seventy-two stairs.
Amy shrugged. "Cross-country pays off."
"What's cross-country?" asked Grizel.
"Never mind," said Sophie. "Fitz, how do we get to the hideout from here?"
"I don't—ohhh," he broke off. Sophie followed his gaze to the opposite side of the tower. Standing there was Tiergan in his stone disguise.
And standing next to him was Wylie.
A/N: That's right—our child Wylie Endal is back! :))))) Please review!
