Anna Peregrine--The Conference of the Birds

Chapter Eight

The other frustrating thing about all of this. We had to find this skull and the Well of Hope before the wights did, and we had no idea what they were.

"The Ymbrynes will handle this entire problem," Mum said. "The rest of you need to get back to the house and stay there. You must all get some rest. We have a fight ahead of us, and I need you in top shape." She turned to me before whispering, "Look after them for me."

"But, I can help–"

"I need you to remain safe," she whispered, tucking my dark blue hair behind my ear.

I sighed, "Alright."

She gave me a smile before turning into her bird form and winging off. I sighed, crossing my arms, looking down at the ground.

Millard went off to the mapping archive to search for American loop atlases and to see if he could find anything on the Well of Hope. Horace went back to the house to sleep to see if he could have any dreams that would tell us anything. Hugh went to interrogate the wights who were still imprisoned to see if he could get anything out of them. Claire said she would go ask some peculiars she worked with in the Department of Arcane Fauna who had lived in America for years to see if they had ever heard of the alphaskull.

"If we think this thing is in America, why don't we just ask the Americans? LaMothe owes me a favor . . . ," Jacob said.

So off we went from my uncle's attic down to the Marrowbone loop entrance. When we arrived though, we found the elevator blocked by walls of Temporal Affairs workers.

"Oh, no you don't," Ulysses Critchley said, holding up his hand, blocking us. "Miss Peregrine Senior just left and gave us strict instructions not to admit you or anyone. Miss Wren and Miss Cuckoo have been apprised of the situation, and they're with the Americans now."

"Excuse me, I am a Ym–"

Olive quickly interrupted me by pointing out that Hugh and Enoch were gone. We quickly looked around and found she was right.

"I know just where they went," Emma growled, so angry she almost lit her sleeve on fire. "Come on, Bronwyn, let's stop them before they do something monumentally stupid."

They left which left me, Jacob, Noor, and Olive alone. It was clear we weren't going anywhere.

We left the building and started wandering around the Acre hopelessly until we found our way back to the house. Nothing useful had occurred. Millard hadn't found anything, Horace only dreamt of pizza. Oh what a sad group we were. Eventually the others joined us and we all sat around depressed. Time to be a Ymbryne.

"Alright," I said, knowing none of us were going to get any sleep. "We tried, right? We tried to find more information while following the rules, didn't we? We gave it our best shot?" No one answered. "Well, the night is young. I think there's enough time to try one last thing."

Everyone looked up at me.

"I don't understand," Claire said, yawning.

"Nor I," Olive said, doing the same.

"I do," Hugh said. "I understand you clearly, Anna, and I'm inclined to agree with you."

"And me," Noor said.

Bronwyn narrowed her eyes at me before turning to the youngest in our group, "Olive, would you be a dear and take Claire to bed, please? It's well past your bedtime, and you know how Miss Peregrine likes you both to be asleep at eight o'clock on the button."

"Alright," Olive said. "Come along, Claire," and the two headed upstairs.

I could hear Claire arguing with Olive saying they had already read one of the Tales last night and she was begging for a different one.