Author's Note: So here it is! The third chapter! Thanks for the reads and it would be supercalifragilisticexpialidocious if you also went and checked out Neha Sasidharan's Heartfall. I haven't made head or tail of it yet, but I'm sure she has something good up her sleeve. Cheers!
Chapter 3
“Apples, apples for sa-a-le!” cried a heavily veiled woman.
“Ah, young lady”, she cried, stopping D’Audrey. D’Audrey came back to her senses.
“Oh, no. No apples. I’ve already got a bag full of ‘em”, she pointed to Daniel, stuffed with what looked like five apples in his mouth, trying to eat them all at once.
“Oh, your horse, miss”, the woman cried “Is it an Arabian Stallion?”
‘Yes”, D’Audrey said,” How did you know?”
“A-a-nothing, nothing,” she looked up at the sun. “Oh no! I’m late! I must hurry back!” As she twirled around, something on her hand glinted in the sunlight and D’Audrey saw it. A locket engraved with..
“The sign of the Kadketeers!” she whispered to Daniel
The sign of the Kadketeers was three swords raised to the air, their tips slowly touching each other.
“We must follow her, Daniel, slowly. Shhh!”
And as they followed the woman, they found their path getting narrower and smellier.
“We certainly are in a remote place, Daniel.”
“Neigh-neigh”
“Smelly? Have you ever smelt yourself, horse?”
“Neigh-h-h!”
“Shhh! This is no time to argue!”
5
Suddenly the woman stopped. They were about to fall on her. By now, they were squeezed into a small space. The woman knocked three times on a door with a certain ‘rat-a-tat’.
“Probably a signal.” D’Audrey whispered to Daniel.
Suddenly a small window opened and a voice said,’ Password?’
The woman chanted in a sing-song voice
“Oh Big Bulbous Head
Very soon, you shall be dead
The call of ‘All for one and one for all’
Shall lead you to your fall.”
The door swung open. The veiled woman walked in and it closed as fast as it had been opened.
“Oh, how do we get in, Daniel?” said D’Audrey.
“Neigh neigh neigh”
“Oh come on, we’ll be out of here as fast as we can. But first, we’ve got to investigate this.”
“Neigh-h-h” said Daniel, pointing to his right.
“Oh a window! You’re good at this, Daniel
“Neighh”
“Yeah, sure, you’ll get an apple. Here, catch”, she threw an apple. Daniel caught it neatly with his mouth.
“Now, let’s see this” said D’Audrey.
She slowly peeped inside. What she saw almost made her fall back but the space was too small.
“Daniel, look”
They both saw three women, one strumming a guitar, another stitching what looked like a suit and the third polishing a sword. The veiled woman quickly set up three chairs.
6
“Why so late, Natalia?” the one polishing a sword said.
“Oh, Madame Daphne, I was selling apples from the apple tree.”
“You mean my apple tree?” the one stitching a coat asked.
“Come on Kim. What’s so grand in that?” the one strumming a guitar said, who had to be Anne.
D’Audrey was dumbfounded. The three Kadketeers at last! If only she’d kept her surprise contained.
“Oy! Who’s she?” shouted Natalia, pointing to D’Audrey. She was caught.
“Uh oh”, said D’Audrey as four pairs of eyes stared at her.
