Nine-year-old Amy Winter's holiday plans have gone from exciting to total disaster.
How is she supposed to have any fun being packed up and sent to stay with a weird relative she can't even remember?
And Aunt Penelope is as weird as they get. With...
"Ouch!" Miranda rubbed her big toe. "Hilda my eyes are up here, not on my butt. Give me that candle." She made a grab for the yellow wax cylinder.
"No! I found it, it's mine." Hilda was too fast, swapping it into her other hand, making the lighted wick flicker.
"I'll take that." Cybil, in one swipe, obtained the shimmering candle, staring hostilely at her two sisters. "How about a little less yapping and put some effort into looking for the light switch. We need to find that 'Transference Spell book', before Penelope gets wind that we're here."
"It would have been a lot easier if Mumsy had told us exactly where in this dungeon Library we would find it. 'Hidden in a special place ' could mean anywhere." Miranda grumbled. "I imagine this is going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack."
"I think I found the switch." Hilda was all smiles as she turned on the lights . "Arggggh!" she shrieked, shocked to see the ghastly sight of such bright yellow paint splashed on all four walls between the floor-to-ceiling books. "Yellow? What is this woman trying to do... Kill me.?"
Miranda smirked "Oh don't be such a baby. I am sure if she was really trying, she would have painted it... lilac."
"Eikkkk!"
"Sisters, look!"
Both Miranda and Hilda turned to stare.
In the center of the library was a very small old weather-beaten tree. Its thick winding roots travelled along the ground and up each wall, dividing off into rows to lovingly form the shelving that supported the numerous books.
"At what? That wrinkled sagging excuse of a tree? Its barely taller than we are." Miranda lost interest immediately, drawn more towards the leather bound books.
"Look at its branches." Cybil insisted.
The crooked trunk supported only four bare branches. The end of each withered limb was curled up into a tight protective ball...except for one.
The tired old branch furthest from them had almost straightened its fingertips.
"It started to uncurl itself while you were arguing. Did either of you touch anything?"
"No," Miranda spoke up quickly.
"Only the light switch," Hilda mumbled. Her eldest sister was acting bossier than usual tonight.
"Something set it off. Can you remember what you did?" Cybil asked impatiently.
Hilda switched the light off, then back on, but nothing happened.
"It might not be a movement but a group of words that activated it. Mumsy always did say that plants respond to patterns." Miranda recalled.
"That can't be right. We weren't talking in any code." Hilda complained.
"Hold on. I think you may be onto something Miranda." Cybil nodded approvingly at her sister, while Hilda grimaced, poking out her tongue. "What were you both bickering about?"
"I wasn't the one bickering." Hilda grumbled." I just hated the colour of the walls. I mean what type of person paints a library, Yellow? Grey is so much nicer."
"That's it Hilda." Cybil sounded so excited. "Did you see it vibrate? Quickly, what other colour did you say?"
"Lilac." Miranda recalled.
"Look girls." Cybil was jumping up and down with delight. "Did you see? The branch completely unwound itself, and look what it was protecting, a book! We found it. Mumsy will be so proud of us!"
Cybil removed the leather bound book from within the clutched fist of the branch .
"Ohhh... it's blank." She frowned, totally disheartened. "Not a single word, not even on the cover."
" Let me try. Maybe one of the other branches has it." Miranda called out . "Pink... Blue"
"I saw a branch start to move on Pink but not Blue." Cybil murmured. Try another combination.
"Green... Red." Miranda tried.
"That branch in the middle started moving when you said, Red." Hilda clapped her hands." How about that horrid Blue and-"
"You did it, That branch has a book too." Miranda stretched up as high as her bare feet would allow and grabbed the book. Stamping down hard on one of the large roots in disappointment as she angrily cried out "Nothing! No ink to be seen anywhere!"
"That just leaves two more branches." Cybil reminded them. "It must be in one of them."
"The only two left are Pink... Green." Miranda said matter of factly.
"Only Pink." Hilda was disappointed. "It didn't move on Green."
"Aren't you missing a word to describe how awful or disgusting Green is?" Miranda provoked her sister.
"Don't be silly... I like Green." Hilda grinned.
"Hey another book." Cybil quickly flicked through the pages. "But it's not the Transference Spell book either ."The dismay rang out in her voice. "Awww...it's blank as well." Slowly she placed it on top of the other books.. "But why did it only open after Hilda said Green, and not when Miranda did?"
Cybil stared befuddled at both sisters.
Then her eyes grew wide.
"Sisters, we have this all wrong! Well... not exactly all wrong. We had the right colour pattern, but you both have to say a colour, each, not just one of you." At her sisters' vacant stares, she continued, "Don't you see? The different vibrations of your voices creates a pattern too."
"Oooh. Whoever came up with this was very very clever, indeed." Hilda was impressed.
"Why thank you, Sweetie. That's the nicest compliment anyone has said to me all day."
All three looked up in dread as they stared into the vivid green eyes of The Storyteller.
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