The Sleepers | The Cave of Wonders: Book 1

Chapter 12.1

"What's this?" Tamerlane said.

"It looks like a – toy."

"And a book. What kind of book is that?"

"It's, um -" the guard coughed, "- a book of poetry."

"A book of poetry, and a toy, and some pieces of – what do you call this, Mr. Carmichael? Avory, isn't it? A rare substance. How does a man of your means come to possess such treasures?"

"I've never seen these things. They must have belonged to my pere, or his."

"Perhaps," Tamerlane said. "We would certainly ask them, were they still alive. And we would ask your mere were she not a dotard." He cleared his throat. "But I'm obliged to look into this matter." He rose to his feet.

"Evie," Mr. Carmichael said. "Take Carmen upstairs and check on my mere."

"Your wife will be accompanying you," Tamerlane said. "As for the young lady and the old one upstairs, they can stay."

"You can't," Carmen cried.

Tamerlane ignored her. "Please escort Mr. and Mrs. Carmichael to my coach," he said to the guards.

There was a bustling sound. "You, hurry up," one of the guards said.

"I'm saying goodbye to my daughter," Mr. Carmichael said.

"You can say it without whispering. Move."

Ward heard them leave and the door close, but it seemed Tamerlane had remained in the room with Carmen.

"It will take only a word from me to set your parents free. You know what I want, and I think you know where it is. Bring it to me and I will reconsider their fate. I'll leave you to think it over."

Tamerlane left.

When the front door closed Ward got out from behind the sofa. Carmen was standing in the middle of the room, her back to him, her fists balled up at her sides, looking very small and wretched and alone.

"Carmen?"

"I wish I never met you!" she cried, turning on him. Then all the fury seemed to leave her at once. "What will he do to them, Ward?"

"What did your pere say?"

"Go to Saint Nick."

"Then that's what we'll do. But couldn't we just give it to Tamerlane? That's all he wants isn't it?"

"I can't give it to him now."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't have it."

"What do you mean? When they couldn't find it I figured you'd hid it."

Carmen shook her head. "I never took it out of my bag. But then they emptied it and -"

"But it was in your bag the whole time." Ward thought back. "Well, you didn't take it out at the Sloopers'. Or Flag Wood. And before that we came straight from Nick's, and you definitely had it there. So the last place we saw it was -"

"When I put it in my bag in Nick's office."

"But we came straight up to the city from there – well not straight up, cos we stopped in the Cathedral because – oh."

"What?"

"I think I know where it is."

Neither of them gave a thought to Grandmere Anna as they slipped out through the back of the house. The old woman gave no thought to them either: she was at that moment deep in the River of Forgetfulness.

Isn't that what we're all asking in our own lives - "Where's my Oliphant"?