N.Snicket -- I don't know what you didn't understand,
but let me try to explain. Isadora can do minor magic by saying rhyming
cantrips. She caused the message to stick to Dash; it happened before
the red herring statue was taken away, but Dash didn't notice. The
message itself was a couplet because she likes couplets. The clue in
the message is based on an old
puzzle about how strange English spelling is: "GHOTI" can be pronounced "fish."
Chapter 7, Epilogue
Neither of them knew the color of the sky. Their gaze was level, looking for land, like the characters in Stephen Crane's short story "The Open Boat" (from which I lifted that first sentence). Both of them knew the color of the sea.
The man and woman had been lost at sea for days, ever since they fought free of the captors who were making them watch the self-destruction of a volcanic island. By the time they reached that island it had sunk beneath the waves. Now they were seeking land, or a ship.
They had some fresh water, for it had rained yesterday and the woman had managed to catch several bucket-fulls, but no food. They had an "open boat" of a sort, or rather the man did. The woman formed the boat.
Book the 7th, The Villain Village
"You've really done it this time," said Rick Poe sadly. "You've upset important people in high society with that auction fiasco."
The three Parrs were seated in Poe's downtown office, in front of a desk with the sign "Superhero Orphans Assistant Protector."
"We were just trying to help our kidnapped friends," said Violet.
"Maybe so, but it's undone most of the good will you three had from saving the city from the Omnidroid," said Poe. "I'm down to very few options for you."
Poe pulled three pamphlets from a drawer. "These three villages are available. You'll find many people there sympathetic to your experiences. You know the old saying: it takes a village to raise a child."
"Huh! A lot of kids who grow up in cities turn out all right, too," said Dash.
"It's just an truism. It's not meant to be 100-percent true," said Poe.
"Gllop!" said Jack-Jack.
Violet looked over the pamphlets.
"One of these villages is called V.F.D.!" she said. "May we go there?"
"Oh yes, you were asking me about V.F.D. before. There's no guarantee this will lead to your friends, but of course you can go there if that's what you want."
"We do," said Dash.
"Yop Yop," agreed Jack-Jack.
"I have to head out to the Amazon rain forest to follow up a lead on the missing Rydingers, but I'll make arrangements for a bus to take you there."
The bus was hot and dusty and they were the only ones on it. The only thing to look at in the bus was a copy of the "Daily Punctuation" that someone left behind. The headline was about the notorious Count Brody who had kidnapped the Rodlinger twins, Douglas and Isabel.
"Have you ever noticed how people assume the newspaper is accurate, but when the story is about something they know they always find mistakes?" said Violet. "We know it was actually Count Buddy who kidnapped the Rydinger triplets, Duncan and Isadora. Now everyone will be looking for the wrong people."
"V.F.D.!" the driver called, "Next stop V.F.D!"
The bus stopped on a dusty road in the middle of nowhere.
"The town's on the horizon thataway," said the driver. "You'll have to walk from here. This is as close as I'm gonna get."
"Why?" asked Dash, but the driver had already jumped back into the bus and was tearing away as fast as he could.
They decided to run in hamster-ball formation until they got within view of the city, which saved at least two hours. They stopped when they came to a sign with the words "V.F.D. Limits." The rest of the words were completely covered by crows. They felt a slight tingling sensation as they passed this sign, and the crows reacted by cawing loudly and flying off.
If they could have gone back and read the rest of the sign now, they would have seen: "V.F.D. Limits -- Only inmates and law enforcement officers beyond this point."
The town was covered with crows as far as they could see -- crows on the buildings, crows in the streets, everything was covered in a layer of black, rustling feathers.
With great trepidation, which here means "fear of the crows, and fear of this strange village," the Parrs approached Town Hall.
Inside was a large crowd of middle-aged and elderly people, apparently gathered for a town meeting. All talking ceased when the children entered the building.
Two men stood at the front of the room. One had metallic prosthetic hands that looked like miniature steam-shovel scoops. He was wearing a miner's helmet pulled nearly over his eyes and on top of that a decorative artificial crow made of cloth. The other was also wearing a crow-decorated helmet, in his case a Germanic warrior's helmet.
"Ve have been expecting you children," said the second man with a slight German accent. "Come forward to the platform. I am Baron von Rücksichtslos , and this is my associate Mr. Unger Myna. Ve are the Village Elders here."
"I recognize that helmet from old news clips on TV," Violet whispered to Dash. "Baron von Ruthless, a famous supervillian! I don't know the other, but he looks sinister, too."
"What are they doing running a village?" Dash whispered back.
"Remember how we always wondered what happened to the supervillians when the heroes were forced into hiding? I think we've made a big mistake. This is an internment camp for supervillians!" Violet said.