Chapter the 23rd
Kevin Rosskill held on to clumps of the golden boar’s fur to keep from falling off into the darkness. His muscles became so stiff and sore that Kevin thought he was going to be permanently paralyzed by the wild ride the boar was taking him on. Gradually, the boar slowed down to a trot time and Kevin relaxed a bit, except that he did not seem to have reached any place in particular. Only when the ride suddenly became bumpy again did Kevin see that the boar was treading on a rough landscape lit by a distant fuzzy light up ahead. As the boar slowed down further, Kevin began to make out the distorted shapes of train cars that had been smashed together.
“What happened?” Kevin cried out. “Was this the train I was riding with Sheila and Roger and Samantha?”
The boar stepped over to a train car that was an animal cage, but the bars were smashed in and broken and whatever animal had been caged there was long gone.
“I guess Fenrir’s okay if he got away,” Kevin muttered to himself.
But the thought of what had happened to his friends if it was the train they were all riding made him queasy. The boar walked along the train until Kevin recognized two chairs that were upended inside of the luxury car. Kevin peered inside, there was nobody there.
“I hope they escaped to a safe place,” Kevin said to himself.
The boar walked along the wrecked train and then climbed up a long pile of rubble consisting of a smashed-up engine and a wall of some sort. From there, Kevin gasped at the sight of a dimly lit city filled with architecture he recognized from his own dreams. The odd-shaped domes studded with diamonds made him think he had stumbled upon the Emerald City in the land of Land of Oz. Kevin hoped that his friends had taken refuge in this city, but he found it so deserted that he wondered if he had come upon a ghost town. Not only were there no people to be seen, but several buildings were falling apart, leaving rough edges as if they were unfinished sketches.
“You’d think my friends would greet me if they were here,” Kevin muttered. “Some friends.”
The street the boar took Kevin down ended in a large square in the center of the city that was just as deserted as the rest of the town. Even there, the buildings looked as if they had been bombed out in a recent war.
“Anybody here?” Kevin called out.
In answer to his call, short, white-haired people armed with spears poured out of the ruins and surrounded him before the golden boar could flee down one of the empty streets. Kevin searched the encircling crowd, hoping to see the faces of his friends, but saw no trace of them. He could only wait as the grim-faced people of the city approached Kevin and pointed their spears at him.
“State your name and your mission!” demanded a short white-haired man.
“I am Kevin the Illuminator and Map Maker!” Kevin announced.
As soon as Kevin announced his name, most of the people dropped their spears amid a lively murmur in the crowd. They talked to each other and pointed to the buildings surrounding them, while giving Kevin sidelong glances that made him uncomfortable. At last, the deliberations among the people broke off and the man who had challenged Kevin stepped forward. Many of the people picked up their spears again and pointed them at Kevin.
“Kevin the Illuminator and Map Maker, we request that you give us the reasons why you have not finished drawing our city.”
The golden boar snorted with contempt for the question, but with so many spears pointed in his direction, Kevin was more inclined to be more respectful.
“Well—I—er—I didn’t even know your wonderful city existed, so how could I draw it?”
Faces flashed with anger, spears pointed sharply in his direction, and voices rose to such a menacing pitch that Kevin began to fear for his life.
“That's why we're the Lost City!” cried a man.
“Nobody remembers us!” yelled a woman.
“Everybody stuffs us under the ocean just to forget us!” shouted a youth.
“Why did you start to draw this city if you were just going to throw us away and forget us?” asked an old woman whose voice cut through the crowd.
“I didn’t draw you,” Kevin protested.
But as soon as he had said those words Kevin began to realize why the designs of the half-drawn buildings looked so familiar to him and he gulped. It all looked very much like what he sketched out for the Lost City on the treasure map he drew for the Royal Carelin Boys’ Choir. No wonder the people complained about being dropped into an ocean and forgotten! Not only were the arches fragmentary, but the buildings on the square looked like ripped up drawings and where the buildings broke off, there was an empty darkness.
“Okay,” said Kevin. “Now I remember you. And now I’ve found you, besides. That means you aren’t such a Lost City anymore, doesn’t it?”
Several people scattered about in the ground grumbled some agreement with that.
“That may be true,” said an old woman, “but your finding us hasn’t been enough to give our buildings and houses the rest of their shapes.”
“Okay,” said Kevin, “I’m sorry about all this. Just bring me some good drawing paper and something good to draw with and I will be glad to draw the rest of your wonderful city.”
The remaining spears dropped to the ground and cheers rang out so loudly that Kevin felt like an instant hero. Before he knew it, a small group of children came running with a large piece of parchment, a quill, and an inkwell. They unrolled the parchment across the boar's back in front of Kevin and handed him the quill. The boar stamped his foot, but otherwise he didn’t complain. To Kevin’s astonishment, the parchment was already covered with half-finished drawings that matched the buildings surrounding him. One girl stood by with the inkwell, ready to be of service. While the crowd waited anxiously, Kevin dipped the quill into the inkwell and filled out a tall building with a minaret at the top. Everybody who was close enough to watch him draw oohed and aahed. That was enough to make Kevin feel that he was the most important artist in the world.
“And there it is!” a boy yelled out.”
“Now that’s better,” said a man.
Kevin looked up to where the boy was pointing. A shiver ran through his whole body when he saw that a building that had been fragmentary a moment ago had just filled out with the exact design that Kevin had just drawn on the parchment.
“You’re the best illuminator we’ve ever had!” exclaimed a girl who was looking over Kevin’s shoulder.
“I do the best I can,” said Kevin with feigned modesty.
“Our city won’t be lost for long at this rate,” added a boy.
“Yea, people will have to sit up and take notice when Kevin the Illuminator and Map Maker is through with his drawing,” said an old man.
“No more lying around outside of everybody else’s knowledge of us!” said a woman.
Kevin let his imagination take flight with the next building he drew so that the jeweled facade of the building across the square began to look like a fireworks display. When the building exploded into view and the people gasped with delight, Kevin’s satisfaction reached the bursting point.
“What do you want next?” asked Kevin. “A casino? A nightclub?”
“An nightclub! “Yea, a nightclub!” people answered. “Call it the Lost Lonely Hearts Night Club.”
“How about the Doubly Lost Lonely Hearts Night Club?” Kevin suggested.
“That’s a good one,” said a boy. “It’s about time somebody cared about how lost we are.”
Kevin wrote out a neon sign for the nightclub with the fanciest lettering he could come up with and then drew a rectangle around it to define the building’s basic shape.
“When you finish that,” said the chief man, his spear still drifting in Kevin’s direction, “be sure to fill in the city walls where that train wrecked it.”
Kevin suspended his quill in midair. He could hardly believe that he had allowed himself so become absorbed with drawing the city that he had forgotten to ask after his friends.
“Did any of you see two girls and one boy and a man with a long beard?” Kevin asked.
The stunned silence that greeted that question became so thick that Kevin could have cut it with a knife.
“Did you know them?” asked a girl.
So, his friends had come to this city. Yet, Kevin realized, with a clammy feeling, they weren’t hanging around anymore.
“Yea, I know them,” said Kevin. “What did you do with them?”
Another silence followed. Kevin began to fear that something was very wrong.
“What did you do, put them in jail?” Kevin yelled. “If you did, you’d better let them right right now!”
“We don’t have a jail,” said one man, “so they aren’t there.”
“Then where are they?” Kevin exploded.
Everybody looked at everybody else but all lips remained sealed. Kevin rolled up the scroll and folded his arms around it.
“Either you tell me where my friends are,” Kevin demanded, “or I will not draw another building for your city.”
Everybody froze for a long time. They all looked like schoolchildren who had been caught at an unseemly prank that they did not want not admit to. The golden boar growled loudly and its red eyes flashed angrily, causing everybody close to it to draw back. After some time had passed, during which time Kevin did not budge, several people nodded to the old man, and the old man stepped forward.
“I hope you understand, Master Kevin the Illuminator and Map Maker,” the old man began, “that it is not easy living in the Lost City where the dark lake devours more and more people every day. So, when a wolf came along, we sacrificed it to the Dark Lake.”
The wolf?” Kevin asked. “Do you mean you sacrificed Fenrir?”
“That’s the name this boy called the wolf,” said a man.
“A boy called the wolf Fenrir?” Kevin asked with mounting fury. “Where is he? You’d better not have sacrificed Roger to this Dark Lake of yours?”
The dead silence made Kevin fear that Roger had indeed been sacrificed to the Dark Lake.
“I must ask you to understand our point of view,” said the old man. “Sacrificing the wolf to the Dark Lake wasn’t enough. We were still as lost a city as we were before the wolf came along. So, when the train engineer who had just wrecked out city wall showed up with two girls and one boy, we had no alternative to sacrificing them to the Dark Lake as well.”
“This time the sacrifice worked!” exclaimed another man.
“What do you mean the sacrifice worked?” Kevin asked in a voice of ice.
“Well, the Dark Lake brought you to our city to come and finish your drawings to that we wouldn’t be so lost any more.”
“But what about Roger and Samantha and Sheila and the engineer!” Kevin cried out.
“There is no need to worry about them, Master Kevin the Illuminator and Map Maker,” said the old man. “We didn't hurt them in the least. They didn’t feel a thing.”
Kevin flung the quill at the nearest child, missing his face by inches, ripped the parchment to shreds, and scattered them on the street.
“That’s the last I’ll ever draw for you!” Kevin yelled.
Several spears poked hard at him and the people’s shouts deafened him, but as the pieces of parchment grew smaller, the shouts grew softer and the spears disappeared. Before long, Kevin’s hands were empty of any shreds of parchment and all was in silence. But by then, Kevin and the golden boar were engulfed in total darkness.
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“It's so hard sitting here when there is we nothing we can do,” Aunt Edith complained.
“Nobody said it was easy to do nothing,” Uncle Martin replied.
“In fact, I distinctly remembering saying many times that doing nothing is exceedingly difficult,” said Aunt Edith.
In the darkness, Aunt Edith and Uncle Martin could hardly see each other or the other two people sharing Evelyn Lear’s living room with them.
“I’m pretty good at doing nothing,” said Gary Haggler, slumped in his chair in the same position he had been in since he first sat down there. “There’s nothing to it.”
“If you had any back bone, you’d want to get up and do something,” Edna Speiser reproved him.
“Who wants a backbone if it means you have to get up and do something?” Gary asked.
“I wish I’d brought my knitting,” Edna complained. “I always feel better if I have something to knit.”
“That’s how I fee about playing my flute,” said Aunt Edith.
“Likewise, that’s how I feel about playing my cello,” said Uncle Martin.
“However,” Aunt Edith sighed, “We don’t have any of these things, and that means that the the only thing we can do is nothing.”
“That’s good,” said Gary.
“Gary,” Aunt Edith said sharply, “You are not at all skilled at doing nothing, to judge by what I have seen of you so far. Slouching and sleeping and sitting in a stupor are all things that you are doing. You haven’t even begun to do nothing.”
Gary groaned and twisted himself about in the chair.
“Why did you let your own children go out on dangerous quests to get this light back when one should think that grownups like you that should be doing it?” asked Edna.
Aunt Edith and Uncle Martin exchanged puzzled looks.
“You don’t seem to understand,” said Uncle Martin. “Going out on a quest to retrieve the light is child’s play. What’s hard is staying behind and waiting for the children to return. All we can do is hope that doing nothing helps them accomplish their quests.”
“Which it probably won't,” said Aunt Edith.
“It seems that the children can’t ever go anywhere without your being afraid that they’ll get in a train crash or a shipwreck,” said Uncle Martin.
“That’s exactly the sort of thing I’m afraid of,” Aunt Edith replied.
“Where would the world be if you ever thought anything would turn out right?” Uncle Martin asked his wife.
“Same place the world would be in if you ever thought anything could go wrong,” Aunt Edith answered.
“Would you two kindly explain how sitting here and doing nothing will help your children with their quests?” Edna asked.
“If we explained that to you,” Aunt Edith replied primly, “then we would be doing something.”
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“Sure makes it easy when you has a map with a red X on it and then you sees this here red X tattooed on the ground, bold as life,” said Captain Peg.
The other pirates and the boys nodded as they peered at the red X at the center of the beam of light cast by Captain Patch’s blind eye.
“Too easy, I say,” said Captain Eagle. “I’ll bet the treasure’s somewhere's else. Who ever heard of someone burying a treasure and marking the spot like this if the treasure’s really there?”
“Maybe it’s because Kevin the Map Maker wanted us to find it,” suggested Captain Edmund.
“Why you ship’s rat!” Captain Eagle cried as he took a sidearm swipe at Captain Edmund’s head and missed.
“Don’t you dare hurt my friend!” Captain Nigel yelled as he landed a fist in midair, right at the spot occupied by Captain Eagle’s head a second before.
“I order you to stop fighting!” said Chief Captain Karen.
Captain Eagle and Nigel froze, their fists in midair. Under Chief Captain Karen’s fierce glare, they both unclenched their fists and lowered their arms.
“Do you think we should dig here for the treasure, Chief Captain, Sir?” asked Captain Nigel.
“Dig here for treasure,” chirped the parakeet.
“Yes,” Chief Captain Karen replied. “My brother Kevin has many faults, but drawing a treasure map for his friends with the intention of misleading them is not one of them. All hands dig for buried treasure!”
Loud cheers rang out but then the whole crew suddenly lapsed into silence and looked sheepishly at their chief captain.
“Is there a problem?” asked Chief Captain Karen.
“There are no shovels or picks on this island, Chief Captain Sir,” said Captain Hilary.
“Well,” said Chief Captain Karen, “one of my brother’s faults is that he would draw a map and forget to includes things like picks and shovels. Is there anything at all that we can use to dig up the treasure besides our bare hands?”
“We could try using the rocks to dig at the ground, Sir,” Captain Nigel replied.
“That will take forever,” Captain Geoffrey complained.
“No it won’t,” said Captain Nigel. “With as many of us as there are, we’ll have the treasure dug up in no time.”
“Then I order all of us to dig away,” Chief Captain Karen ordered.
Chief Captain Karen picked up a rock and the pirates and boys did the same and they all scraped away at the X. They kept their spirits up and made the work lights by singing their favorite pirate songs as they worked. Chief Captain Karen impressed herself and her mates with her ability to chip a good chunk of earth with each blow of a rock. Captain Patch shed what light he could with his good eye, but as the hole deepened, the beam of light failed to penetrate to the bottom.
“We'll never find the treasure,” whined Captain Michael, his face caked with dirt.
“Find it, find it, find it,” chirped Polyphony.
“I said we’ll never find it!” Captain Michael snapped at the bird.
“Find it! Find it!”
“You see?” said Captain Polly, “when Polyphony says ‘find it,’ he means ‘find it,’ whether you like it or not.”
“Find it like it or not,” chirped the parrot.
“We have to find the treasure,” said Captain Edmund, “whether it’s here or not.”
“Whether here or not,” chirped the parrot.
“Uh-oh-o-o-h!” cried Captain Hilary with his face buried in the hole.
Captain Hilary sat up, looking quite shaken.
“Bad news, Chief Captain, Sir,” said Captain Hilary. “There’s no more dirt to dig out.”
“What did I tell you?” said Captain Michael.
“Shut up!” said Captain Geoffrey. “The map didn't say how deep it was.”
“I suppose you wants to say the map didn’t say if there was any dirt in the hole, neither,” said Captain Eagle. “I knew we should have attacked a merchant ship somewhere’s else.”
“Perhaps Sir Kevin the Mapmaker didn’t draw any dirt in the hole past where we’ve dug,” suggested Captain Nigel.
“Well, if there isn’t any dirt,” said Chief Captain Karen, “what is down there?”
“N-n-nothing,” Captain Hilary replied.
“It must be the Dark Lake,” said Captain Dennis. “My Great Aunt said that the Dark Lake takes over everywhere when there isn’t something.”
“But Kevin drew the treasure chest under the X!” Captain Edmund insisted. “So it has to be here!”
“Just because there ain’t no more dirt in that hole don’t mean there ain’t no treasure chest in it,” said Captain Polly.
“My Great Aunt would say that the treasure chest could be down there in the Dark Lake,” said Captain Dennis.
Captain Edmund dropped a small pebble down the hole. After a breathless second or two, the treasure hunters heard a dull clunk.
“Gold!” Captain Edmund cried. “Frankincense! Myrrh!”
“We're rich!” “We're rich!” cried the other boys and pirates.
Captain Edmund stretched his hands into the hole as far as he could reach, but he didn’t touch anything.
“Thought so,” said Captain Michael.
“I’ve got longer arms,” said Captain Nigel.
Captain Nigel plunged a hand into the hole. After a few seconds, his face lit up and he lifted a treasure chest out of the pit with one hand and dropped it on the ground. At first, the chest looked small, but once it was on the ground, it proved to be about shoulder height on most of the boys. So many cheering boys and pirates grabbed for the chest that nobody could open it. Chief Captain Karen clapped her hands and, instantly, all boys and pirates stood at attention around the treasure chest.
“What next, Chief Captain Sir?” asked Captain Scratch.
“It will be easier to open the treasure chest if only one person does it at a time,” said the Chief Captain.
“Be my guest,” offered Captain Eagle.
Captain Karen put a hand on the latch, then hesitated.
“I appoint Captain Edmund to open it,” she announced.
Too awed by his sudden good fortune to speak, Captain Edmund approached the chest as if it were a dragon worthy of respect. Because of his size, he had to get up on his tiptoes to reach up to the latch, but then found that his reach wasn’t quite long enough to lift the latch.
“I’m sorry, sir, I’m too small,” said a disconsolate Captain Edmund.
“Captain Nigel, please assist our third mate,” Chief Captain Karen ordered.
“Gladly, sir.”
Captain Nigel hoisted Captain Edmund to the top of the chest and held him in place until he opened the latch. Then, after a dramatic pause, Captain Edmund flung open to top. The chorus of cheers was deafening but then it diminished as the boys and pirates peered over the top and saw no gold, no frankincense, no myrrh, no diamonds, no jewels, but only darkness.
“Well,” said Chief Captain Karen meekly. “We really were supposed to be recovering the lost light, and I fear we had forgotten that in our excitement over the treasure.”
“Forgotten light,” said the parakeet.
“I don’t see any light in there, either,” said Captain Geoffrey.
“This treasure’s a real dud,” added Captain Michael.
“But there has to be something in there,” Captain Edmund insisted. “Please give me another boost, Captain Nigel. I’m sure I can find something at the bottom of this.”
“Sure thing,” Captain Nigel replied.
“Wait!” cried Captain Dennis.
“What’s the matter?” asked an impatient Captain Geoffrey.
“My Great Aunt would warn us that the chest might be filled with the Dark Lake!”
Several pirates and boys exchanged worried glances and mumbled phrases.
“Captain Dennis!” said Captain Eagle. “Can you explain how the Dark Lake can be at the bottom of this here hole and inside this here treasure chest at the same time?”
Captain Dennis’ lip quivered and tears filled his eyes.
“Thought so,” said Captain Geoffrey. “Let’s not waste any time worrying about that Dark Lake being inside the chest.”
For the second time, Captain Nigel helped Captain Edmund climb to the top of the chest where he leaned over and reached down as far as he could.
“Find anything?” asked Captain Hilary.
“Not yet,” Captain Edmund answered. “I’m climbing in.”
Captain Edmund dropped himself into the chest until he was dangling from the edge with Nigel holding on to his ankles.
“Can you feel the bottom of the chest?” asked Chief Captain Karen.
“No,” said Edmund. “I’ll have to jump down.”
“DON”T!” cried Captain Dennis.
But his warning came too late. Captain Nigel had already he let go of Captain Edmund. The boys and the pirates listened for the thud of his feet hitting the bottom, but they heard nothing. Neither did they hear a scream or anything else. Captain Nigel leaped to the edge of the chest.
“Captain Edmund!” he cried. “Are you down there?”
There was no answer.
“Maybe there’s no bottom to the chest,” said a pale Captain Hilary.
“There has to be,” said Captain Geoffrey.
“No there doesn’t,” Captain Eagle retorted. “Not if Kevin didn’t draw no bottom to it.”
“There’s no bottom to the treasure chest if it’s filled with the Dark Lake,” said Captain Dennis through his tears.
Captain Nigel stood up on the edge and crouched into a diving position.
“I’m coming Edmund!” he cried
“Nigel!” Chief Captain Karen cried.
But Captain Nigel, too, was long gone inside the treasure chest. Everybody listened but, for the second time, there was no sound of a boy landing on the bottom of the chest, neither was there the sound of a boy’s scream.
“Captain Nigel!” cried Chief Captain Karen. “Are you down there?”
“See anything?” asked a stunned Captain Hilary.
Captain Eagle and Captain Polly looked over the edge anxiously, then shook their heads.
Chief Captain Karen began to cry. Captain Polly put his arm around her.
“Don't cry,” sobbed Captain Polly.
“Don’t cry,” said Polyphony.
“They'll be back,” Captain Polly assured her. “A treasure chest can't be that empty.”
“It can too when some other sharkface could just as easily have found the X and dug the treasure up for himself,” said Captain Eagle.
“I didn’t say the treasure chest was empty,” said Dennis, tears still streaking his face, “I said it was filled with the Dark Lake.”
“And what good is that going to do Captain Edmund and Captain Nigel?” asked Captain Scratch,
“Hey!” cried Captain Hilary, “Diamonds! Jewels! Sapphires!”
“We’re rich!” cried Captain Geoffrey.
Chief Captain Karen stood with her mouth open as a mound of purplish, glistening diamonds and jewels rose up out of the treasure chest. But, just as she was beginning to believe her eyes, the pile broke up into scattered sparks and then shrank to the thinnest of threads.
“Some jewels these are,” scoffed Captain Michael.
“Is this Melanie’s Web?” asked Captain Polly, “or is this Melanie’s Web?”
“It’s Melanie’s Web!” Captain Dennis cried, his tears suddenly forgotten. “I’ve seen Melanie’s Web! My Great Aunt will be so proud of me.”
As the boys and pirates watched, the threads crept over the edge of the treasure chest, slithered down the other side and slid across the ground in Chief Captain Karen’s direction.
“Melanie likes you,” said Captain Dennis.
“Who is Melanie and why should she like me?” asked a bewildered Chief Captain Karen.
“Melanie’s a spider and she wants to eat you for dinner,” said Captain Hilary with relish.
But his face turned pale when several threads crawled up Chief Captain Karen’s arms.
“Get away from me!” the Chief Captain cried.
Captain Geoffrey chivalrously tried to brush the web off from her, but couldn’t do it. Captain Polly pulled at the web with his massive hands but he also failed to break it apart and free the Chief Captain.
“Well I'll be a starfish caught in a barracuda's grin!” exclaimed Captain Polly. “Get the swords!”
“DON’T!” Captain Dennis cried.
“What do you want us to do, let that spider take our Chief Captain away?” Captain Polly raged.
“Captain away,” echoed the parakeet.
“HELP!” cried Chief Captain Karen as she struggled with the web in vain.
“Save the chief captain!” roared Captain Polly.
Not heeding Captain Dennis, several boys and pirates came forward with swords and rocks to hack away at the web, but before they could try to cut away the threads, Chief Captain Karen was suddenly whisked over the lid of the chest, her scream, swallowed by the darkness.
“Trust Melanie and her web!” Captain Dennis yelled after her.
Captain Polly grabbed Captain Dennis and shook the boy hard.
“How dare you throw our Chief Captain to that spider!” he yelled.
Captain Dennis was crying too hard to answer the question.
“Let’s send Captain Dennis in after her,” Captain Geoffrey suggested. “What would your Great Aunt say to that?”
“That’s okay with me,” sniffed Captain Dennis.
“We ain’t going to lose no more of our crew!” said Captain Eagle, “and that’s final.”
“We’re really stuck here now,” pouted Captain Michael.
“We'll never be home in time to sing Christopher Tye's Lost and Found Mass,” said Captain Martin.
“Don't want to be,” said another.
“Better than this,” said the first.
“We can sing the mass here to pass the time while we're stuck,” suggested Captain Hilary.
“I don’t feel like singing,” said Captain Martin.
“My Great Aunt says. . .” Captain Dennis began.
“I don’t care two seahorse’s teeth what your Great Aunt says!” yelled Captain Michael.
Captain Dennis’ lips quivered and he started to cry.
“I’ll bet forty thousand jewels lost at the bottom of the ocean that Captain Dennis’ Great Aunt thinks we’re better off if the lads sing then if they don’t,” said Captain Polly.
“But Dr. Schnitzelbergen isn't here,” said Captain Geoffrey.
“Neither is Captain Nigel,” said Captain Michael.
“That means Captain Hilary has to conduct until Captain Nigel comes back,” said Captain Geoffrey with a smirk.