(Serious) Author's Note: Thanks to krikanalo and Theonewhoweaveswords for reviewing the last chapter! :)
Chapter Nine
Violet was cold.
Despite sleeping wrapped up tightly in her coat, she was cold when she woke up to a cloudy sky that morning on Blade Ridge. Looking over towards the castle, she could see Lemony sitting at the edge of the ridge, still peering attentively through the binoculars at the fortifications below them. One the other side of Violet lay Arlo Thursday, who she couldn't help noticing looked particularly handsome when asleep, strands of his long black hair covering half of his face from view.
"I see that you're awake," Lemony said as he noticed Violet sit up.
"Haven't you had any sleep?" she asked him.
"No," he replied casually. "I'll catch up during the day. There's not much reason to stay here for much longer."
"Have you noticed anything?" she asked, remembering the fear that they were in the wrong place that had crept up on her the previous evening.
"Enough to know that we're in the right place," Lemony replied. "I've seen activity, but nothing useful. I expect that it may take several outings like this one get a full understanding of what we're up against."
"We'll be coming back, then?"
"Of course, Violet. You didn't expect us to learn everything we need in a weekend, did you? I can understand that you're eager to get your mother and sister back, but this is going to take time," Lemony explained.
"Don't you want to get her back, too?" Violet asked bravely, hoping that if she could make Lemony feel pressured into staying on the ridge longer. Every day could be a day too long. From what she understood, Olaf had been at the castle for two months already. Who knows what he could have done to her family in that time?
"I may never have met Sunny," Lemony replied slowly, putting down the binoculars and turning to face Violet. Both of them were talking barely above a whisper, so as not to wake Arlo. "But I knew your mother. More than Jacques, or anyone else back at the V.F.D. Headquarters. Excluding your father, of course. I know your mother even more than you do, Violet."
"What do you mean?" Violet asked, slightly confused as to how this man who she only met seven weeks before knew her mother more than she did. The idea seemed preposterous, a word which could be used here to describe Violet's shock at what Lemony had told her.
"Tell me, how old are you, Violet?" Lemony asked. "Thirteen? Fourteen?"
"Fourteen," Violet replied. "My fifteenth birthday is next February."
"Well, I knew your mother for seventeen years," Lemony replied. "I first met her in the same place that I first met you, at the Headquarters in the Mortmain Mountains. I was just eight years old then, following in my older siblings' footsteps and beginning my V.F.D. training. We're same age, and so we spent most of those early years in the same classes, becoming used to each other's company."
"What happened after that?" Violet asked. She was beginning to understand why Lemony had said that he knew her mother better than she did. She knew about Beatrice Baudelaire the mother, the woman who gave birth to Violet at almost twenty-eight years of age, but Violet's mother had barely spoken about her past to Violet. She knew nothing of Beatrice Baudelaire - or, whatever her maiden name was, Violet didn't know - the volunteer. Violet's mother had always been careful to mention little about her past to her children.
"We grew apart during our teenage years," Lemony explained. "As we both ended up apprenticed in different parts of the country during our second phase of V.F.D. training. I was apprenticed under a woman called S. Theodora Markson, and ended up in a small town far from the city called Stain'd-by-the-Sea."
"What did the S stand for?" Violet asked, curious to ask more about Lemony's own chaperone. Violet hadn't encountered her during her time in the Mortmain Mountains, and so she assumed that Ms. Markson was no longer working for the organisation.
"She never did tell me," Lemony replied quickly, trying to continue his story. "It was a surprisingly interesting apprenticeship, but that is another story. I was seventeen and a fully-qualified V.F.D. member before I had a good chance to talk to Beatrice again. Those were dark years for the volunteered as the schism reached its peak when I was in my early twenties. I was never much of a fighter myself - Beatrice was usually the one with the courage for the many daring missions that we were sent on, including the one that landed us in this mess, twenty years later."
"The mission to steal the sugar bowl?" Violet asked.
"Yes," Lemony nodded. "After that, the schism started to die down within a year, culminating with the battle for Anwhistle Aquatics and the infamous 'Snicket Snickersee'."
"What happened after that?"
"After the fire at Anwhistle Aquatics, I never saw your mother again," Lemony said sadly. "I was twenty-five then, but thanks to some poor research skills and the infamously inaccurate newspaper The Daily Punctilio, I ended up being framed for crimes - mostly fires - that I never committed, and was forced to go into hiding along with my siblings. Most left in the struggling V.F.D. didn't even know if I was alive or dead."
"My mother seemed to think that you were alive," Violet said. "She was searching for you when Olaf found us in the Hinterlands back in July."
"I wouldn't be surprised if she had done," Lemony said. "After going into hiding, I didn't show my face in V.F.D. again until two years ago, when I turned forty. It was only then that I learned that Olaf and his associates were still up to their old tricks." Lemony paused for a moment. "By that, I mean that he was still creating his evil plans, making life hell for volunteers everywhere. You'll have to forgive my slightly alternate way of speaking, Violet. I've picked up various idiosyncrasies - a word which means 'unique habits', from my former chaperone. I wouldn't be surprised if it rubs off on Arlo, eventually."
Violet and Lemony smiled at this as they both looked over at the sleeping Arlo, and were silent for a few moments.
"Did you ever know Arlo's mother?" Violet asked eventually, breaking the silence.
"Barely," Lemony said. "She was a year younger than Beatrice and I. We were acquaintances for years, but never friends. I was still upset when Jacques informed me of her loss," he finished sadly. Violet knew that Arlo was still affected by his mother's death while working for the volunteers. He never knew how she died, but he claimed that he didn't want to know. Violet was curious herself, but felt that she didn't want to be entrusted with such information, for fear of letting something slip to her friend. She tried to think of the right thing to say to Lemony, but she assumed that Lemony had had a similar conversation with Arlo as he quickly tried to change the subject.
"We'd better wake him," Lemony said, gesturing to Arlo. "The morning is already upon us, and our brothers will be wondering where we are."
Throughout the ten days that followed, the volunteers made trips to Blade Ridge every evening. Jacques seemed to spend most of his time keeping the camp in order or poring over the maps of the area with Klaus, but he made the trip to the ridge a couple of times during the week. Even Klaus spent one night on the ridge. But Violet and Arlo seemed to go almost every day, as if they had taken complete control of the reconnaissance side of the mission.
Over the course of the ten days, a clearer picture of their situation began to become apparent to them. They learnt that the castle was defended by ten people at most, although they were still more heavily armed than the volunteers. On a couple of occasions, Violet even saw Count Olaf himself, and became reaccustomed to his tall, scraggly look, his one long eyebrow and his shiny, shiny eyes. On the evening that Klaus joined Arlo and Lemony on the ridge, he saw one of Count Olaf's associates, the tall, bald man with a long nose, holding the same harpoon gun he had used to injure the Baudelaires' father. And on several evenings, Arlo noticed a tall woman who had become Olaf's most recent accomplice, and Lemony identified her as Esmé Squalor, the woman that he had helped Beatrice to steal the sugar bowl from all those years ago.
However, it seemed to these five volunteers that the Firestarters waiting inside Bladeridge Castle were perfectly intent to do just that. Every other day, they received one delivery from a man who came by motor car, driving into the castle to deliver some sort of parcel to Olaf and his associates. Lemony assumed that this delivery kept them stocked in vital supplies such as food and water, as none of them ever left the castle. But by the end of their second week at the castle, Lemony, Violet and Arlo (who were the most regular visitors to their spying spot on Blade Ridge) had noticed that these deliveries were coming far more frequently, often two or three a day.
"Something odd is going on," Lemony said to the group as they all sat down together outside the tents to eat dinner one night. "They're receiving far more deliveries than they were before. I think the Firestarters are up to something."
"My best guess," suggested Jacques. "Is that they are either expecting more visitors, which will make the castle harder to infiltrate, or they are going to move base, in which case it could take us moths to find them again."
"One thing is clear to me," Lemony concluded. "We've done enough research. We have to try and get into the castle, and quickly, before the Firestarters can act out whatever they're planning."
"But how are we going to do that?" Arlo asked.
"I've got no idea, Thursday," Lemony replied. "Does anyone have any ideas?"
"Well, Arlo and I infiltrated the Firestarter base in the northwest Hinterlands by using a grappling hook made of scrap metal from Jacques' helicopter and guy ropes from Arlo's tent," Violet explained. "But I doubt that would work here, as the walls are too high," Violet said disappointedly.
"You're probably right," Lemony agreed. "Any other ideas?"
"Surely you've read something about breaking into a castle?" Violet asked, looking at her brother Klaus.
"I've read a lot about various sieges," Klaus said. "But I doubt that'd help us, as we don't have a whole army. We're just five people."
"What's a siege?" Arlo asked.
"A siege," explained Lemony. "Is when an army tries to force its way into a castle. It either does this through violence or by surrounding the castle, preventing supplies from entering the castle, in an attempt to starve out the people inside, forcing a surrender."
"But we've only got five of us, so we can't surround the castle," Jacques said. "What methods have people used to break in, Klaus?"
"Most of them are violet," Klaus said. "In many sieges, soldiers try to scale the walls using ladders and grappling hooks, but we've already ruled that out."
"I'm sure we could build a ladder between us," Violet said. "There's plenty of wood around here, and I understand how to build ladders sturdily."
"But it'll take a long time to make a decent ladder with the tools that we have," Lemony explained. "We only have a few sharp knives, so it would take ages to craft all of the wood, even if I was a carpenter. We need a quick solution."
"In one siege several hundred years ago in England, the soldiers dug a tunnel underneath the castle walls, getting into the fortress from underneath."
"I don't know about going underneath the walls," Arlo added. "But we could definintely go over the top with them. "If we went up onto Blade Ridge, we could use mine and Violet's gliders to fly down into the base."
"But there's five of us," Klaus said. "And only two gliders. There's no way that they could take all of our weight."
"Have you got a better idea, then?" snapped Arlo, annoyed that his hang-glider theory had been so quickly turned down.
"Well, disguise has also been used as a way of infiltrating a castle over the years," Klaus added. "And I'm sure that's a far easier way of getting inside."
"You're right," Lemony said conclusively. "But what could we disguise ourselves as?"
"Well, there's the delivery men," Arlo said. "I'm sure that a couple of us could pose as delivery men. It's not always the same person going to the castle, so I'm sure that the Firestarters won't notice anything odd until we're inside if we have decent disguises."
"That's a very good idea, Thursday," Lemony said, smiling. "I suppose that I can sort out disguises for myself and Jacques within a couple of days."
"What about us?" Violet asked. "Aren't we coming?"
"No," Lemony said firmly. "There's usually only one or two delivery men, so if there's suddenly five, the Firestarters will suspect us. Plus, you're children - that's bound to give something away."
"And the fact that you're children means that you should be kept out of harm's way. You're lucky that you're a part of this mission in the first place, Baudelaires," Jacques added. "I suggest that you should stick to reconnaissance."
"Yes," Lemony continued. "The three of you can keep a look out for us from Blade Ridge when we attempt to infiltrate the castle. We have a pair of decent walkie-talkies, so we should be able to communicate over medium to long range. You can let us know if you see anything unusual.2
"Alright," said Violet, realising that as usual, Lemony had a good point. She could still play a part in helping to keep the Snickets safe as they try to rescue her family. "We'll provide help from Blade Ridge."
"Well, before we can do anything, we've got a lot of work to do," Lemony said, standing up. "Klaus, you can help my brother and I start work on our disguises. Thursday, take Violet with you up to Blade Ridge with you tonight. Just because we have a plan doesn't mean that we should stop our nightly missions."
Lemony paused for a moment, as though he was still thinking through some parts of the plan.
"Well," he said finally. "We'd better get a move on. We have plenty of work to do."
(Serious) Author's Note: If you enjoyed this chapter, please review! Constructive criticism is accepted :)