Creatures

Chapter Thirteen

I had to drag Beth through the wide slit that allowed the telescope to poke outside. After a struggle with clothes catching on gears and twisting our bodies to fit through the narrow space, we finally made it. She felt surprisingly light when I pulled her after me, as if she only weighed half what I did. Once we are outside on the snowy side of the dome, we half-fell, half-slid down onto the roof.

The outside air was fresh, but bitingly cold. We didn’t have our coats, we’d left those down in the entry area. The roof wore a thick coat of snow. The scrolling woodwork along the eaves was iced like a cake. We stood on a relatively flat spot, but there were peaks and adornments everywhere around us. I grabbed hold of a crouched gargoyle’s iron wings while I brushed snow from my legs.

“How did you wriggle out of that tiny hole so fast?” she asked, brushing herself. She looked up at the observatory dome and the tiny slit we’d come through. It was less than a foot wide.

“I’m not sure how I managed to pull you out, you don’t weigh much do you?”

“I guess not,” she said. She frowned. “What seems odd to me is that you are definitely bigger around than I am and I’m the one that almost got stuck.

I shrugged. “I’ve always been able to get through tight spots like that. One time, when I was little, I got under the house and crawled everywhere down there with the spiders until my parents coaxed me out. They were very upset and I was very dirty.”

“I’ll bet,” said Beth. “What are we going to do now? I’m cold.”

I looked around and my initial excitement at having escaped the Forever Room faded. It was cold, icy and windy up here. “I suppose we have to find another way down. There has to be a roof access door somewhere.”

“Brrrr,” said Beth. She crossed her arms tightly and pulled her head down.

“We’ll get up on that high platform and have a look around,” I said, pointing.

She followed me as we picked our way across the roof. The worst part was crossing the slanted roof sections. They were icy and steep. More than once, we slid into valleys between the peaks and had to start over. I made sure we didn’t get too close to the edge. That way there was no chance we would fall off.

While we struggled across the roof like mountaineers crossing frost-covered hills, Beth talked.

“You never did really explain Hussades to me. What the heck are they, exactly?”

“It’s rather like crossing this roof,” I said. “Except with a lot more variety. It’s a race through an obstacle course. The big difference is that the players change their shape so they can do better in the race.”

“I thought it was impolite to change in front of others,” she said.

“Yes. There is a tent to change in. You only change once in secret, that’s part of the game’s strategy. You have to choose your form to beat your opponent’s form. That’s what makes it exciting, because the opponents are always different for each race.”

“So, why don’t the flying types always win?”

“Well, the courses usually have some trick for them, like a flaming hoop or two you have to dive through. If you have feathers, this can be a problem. You will have crispy wings very quickly.”

Beth thought about that for a few moments. I looked at her face. It was red from the cold, but I could see the gears working in her mind. She was a thinker, I could tell.

Slipping and scratching at the icy shingles, we managed to reach the top of a high platform. A big statue stood up there. I couldn’t quite make out what the statue was supposed to be, the snow caked up on it so much you could only see a few bits poking out. What we could see were snarling lips and a single clawed hand. The hand stretched toward the sky with every finger extended. The claw-tips were curved hooks of black iron, and I decided right away we didn’t want to know what else was hidden under that white blanket of snow. I didn’t want Beth to see anything… scary. She didn’t need to know everything about my family just yet.

“So, couldn’t you just be so small you could dart through the center of the flaming hoop?” she asked.

I smiled. Her mind was still working on Hussades. “Yes, but if you are very small, you often have trouble with pushing open a big door or something like that. Every form has its advantage and disadvantage, but the better you are at morphing into different shapes the more options you have.”

She nodded. “Why can’t you just study the course and come up with the best form?”

“You can do that, but the course itself changes somewhat every time.”

“Hmm, so every game has different players and a different course?”

“Yes, it’s very exciting.”

“But Connor, you can’t change into anything. And neither can I.”

I nodded grimly. “Don’t rub it in. I’m always picked last when we form up the teams.”

She made a sympathetic clucking sound with her tongue. We turned our attention back to the frozen roof. We scanned the hilly expanse of white lumps and dark crevices.

“Over there!” said Beth, bumping me with her shoulder and pointing. I looked and there it was! A box-shaped entrance that made a hump in the snow. A door faced us. It was small and square, like the one that had let us into the Forever Room.

“I wondered why the doors up here are small and square?” I asked aloud.

Beth shrugged.

It took a few minutes of scrambling, but we managed to get over there. I gripped the frosty brass knob and twisted. I twisted harder, but it didn’t budge.

“Locked,” I said.

Beth groaned. “We’ll have to break one of the windows soon, or we will freeze out here.”

I chewed my lower lip. First, we had disobeyed the principal’s instructions to stay in the Forever Room. Second, we were about to break into the mansion.

I looked back at the dark footprints we’d left all over the roof. If it didn’t snow soon, it wouldn’t require the eyes of a hawk to notice we had been messing around on the roof.

Then I snapped my fingers. I smiled at Beth. She smiled back and shook her head slowly.

“Somehow,” she said, “I know I’m not going to like your idea this time.”

I laughed. “The balcony,” I said. “There’s one on the fourth floor right over the side, very near the roof. All we have to do is drop down onto it and go inside.”

Beth looked at me like I was crazy. “I’m not dropping over the side of the roof! We can’t tell what’s down there! I’m not even going to near the edge, I’ll slip off.”

I waved away her concerns. “Here,” I said, giving her one end of my scarf. “Hold onto this while I go over and have a look.”

She protested, but finally took hold of one end. She had her other hand wrapped around the foot of a hoofed statue. Holding onto my scarf, I crawled out on the frosty roof and went flat on my belly. I looked down over the edge. There it was beneath me, the balcony I was looking for. But it was a bit over to the left from where we were.

“There it is!” I said triumphantly.

“Be careful!” Beth shouted back.

I squirmed along the roof line toward the balcony. When I got closer, I hung my head out further and tried to peek in the glass doors. Inside I saw two figures moving around. The room beyond the glass was the upstairs study. I could see books lined up in massive dark wooden cases. There were globes and more statues and big leather chairs with ottomans to put your feet on while you enjoyed a book. One of the people inside turned my way and I recognized the face. It was Danny. He saw me, and he frowned, and the frown melted into surprise. He started laughing and pointing at me.

“Great,” I said over my shoulder to Beth. “We’ve been spotted.”

“Connor!” said Beth. She pointed up into the sky.

I followed her finger and there, so high above us that she was no more than a winged speck, flew a very large hawk. I slipped a bit from craning my neck and grabbed the scarf. I yanked on it, and caught myself.

I heard Beth give a yelp. She had been looking up as well, and when I yanked the scarf, I pulled her enough to start her sliding down toward me. The frost crackled and hissed as her shoes slid over it.

Beth slid faster. Her boot took aim at my side. She came down like a kid sledding down a hill, going faster as she went.

I braced myself as best I could, gripping the roof edge, but it wasn’t enough.

Beth didn’t weigh much, but she weighed enough. When she hit me in the side, we both went over the edge.