The Magician's Sons

Chapter 57

"Copper, are ya there?" the voice called again.

Copernicus let out a sob of relief and made an effort to press closer to the wall. "I'm here! I'm here! Who's that?" he whispered through the thin board wall.

"No time," was the short answer. It was a young voice though, a voice which Copper was sure he had heard before. "Ya needs savin', an' I don't rightly know 'ow t' go about it. We can pick locks, but not wiv Mad-madam Bony an' Father a-squalorin' in the front room."

As the voice struck Copper with recognition, his blood ran cold. "G-g-gibs? Is it you?"

"'Course, who else would it be, old boy?"

"But we thought you were dead!" Copernicus breathed in horror.

"Dead?" Gibbs gasped. A second of silence followed. "Well, that explains why Father never come huntin' me down! Stop wastin' time, Cop. I wanna save ya! Now let's fink...they'd catch us for sure if we tried t' come in. Unless ya knows of a real good place to 'ide. Maybe we can wait till the bloody bludgers are asleep. Then we can sneak in an' break ya out. Tell me somefing about the 'owse. What's it look like inside? Quick, while the row lasts!"

Copernicus tried to think fast. "Well...there's about three rooms as far as I can tell: some sort of bedroom to the right when you walk in the door, and a front room, and a kitchen to the left. That's where I am now. I'm locked in a closet full of coal, and the key's in a drawer. But the strangest thing about the house is all the mirrors! There must be fifty of 'em! I don't know! They're everywhere. There's so many, I hardly knew what was up and down when I first came in!"

"Any closets?"

"I don't know. Probably."

Suddenly Mordechai and Ebony's voices ceased. Both boys knew that saying another word would be a fatal mistake. That was the last Copernicus heard from Gibbs.

From that moment on, his reeling head became so confused. The last time he had seen his adopted brother, the boy had lain, covered in blood, on the floor in Mordechai's old mansion. Bob had lifted his limp body and had carried it away. Everyone had guessed that Gibbs had died, but had anyone actually proclaimed it? For a few minutes, Copper ran the wonderous scenario. The boy must have lived. Surely Bob had carried him to a hospital, and he had recovered. Then doubts and perplexity came. What if everything he had just heard had been a figment of his imagination? Had his wishful mind conjured that discussion with Gibbs? He felt sick and exhausted. What if it had been a sort of hallucination?

Meanwhile, two shadows crouched outside, pressing their backs against the house so the darkness concealed them. They listened with all of their might to the sounds in and outside of the building. Their thoughts were working hard in haste.

"What's the plan?" Mose whispered to his brother at last.

Gibbs shut his eyes tight, shuddered in dread, and bit his lip. "One wrong step, an' he'll kill us all," he breathed in horror. "Blimey, Mose, I wish we weren't at this alone! What we need is Bob! I should'a sent you to fetch 'im while I tracked Cop instead o' takin' you along. It might'a sped fings up a bit. But we wasn't finkin'!"

That evening, the two lads had haunted the streets around The Jolly Adder, sensing that something was wrong and wondering what it was. They had seen Bob give Charlie a long, serious counsel before the man and the boy had entered the tavern. Then, in the darkness, they had seen Copernicus wandering around. They had tried to get his attention, but their waving hadn't been noticed. And, with all the mystery, they had felt like shouting would have been a bad idea. Now they had to wonder what had happened in The Jolly Adder. How had Bob missed their friend when they had been so close to each other? In any case, they knew that Bob was the only one they could run to.