"What's next?" Aunt Sunny asked.
Henry focused on another of a series of objects on a shelf. "A brass statue, about a foot tall, like a reclining Buddha, but with an elephant's head. The ears are ragged, like bat wings, and the trunk has a toothed sucker-disc on the end of it."
"That's Chaugnar Faugn."
He turned and grinned as he spotted his mother standing in the doorway of the vault.
"Hey, Diff," Aunt Eile said. Eile and Sunny weren't really his aunts, but he had called them that ever since he first met them some five years previously. Both they and his mother had encouraged him to do so.
She didn't take his eyes off him. "How's it going?"
"It's been fun," he replied.
"Henry's been a great help," Eile said.
"Yeah, we should be done in an hour!" Sunny added.
His mother gave him the look she used when she knew he was telling a little white lie to avoid hurting anyone's feelings. When Eile and Sunny had asked if he wanted to assist them, he had jumped at the chance to get out of weapons training, and the idea of seeing all the old relics in storage had sounded exciting, but it actually turned out to be pretty boring. They didn't know anything about any of them, they were just cataloging them to update the records. It wasn't long before he found himself wishing he was doing anything else, even training, but Eile and Sunny had really wanted to spend time with him and he didn't want to disappoint them.
"Would you excuse us, Henry?" his mother said. "I need to speak with the Girls for a moment."
He nodded. "Yeah, sure."
She flashed a disapproving frown before she stepped out of the vault. She didn't like it when he picked up their manner of speech.
He turned his back on them as they conversed quietly outside in the corridor. Ordinarily he would be very eager to eavesdrop, but his boredom made him uninterested for once. He just wanted to get it all done so he could get out of there. The catacombs, which were the lowest subterranean level below the manor house, had several vaults where his ancestors, as well as his mother, kept objects they had collected over the decades under lock and key. He knew that she had wanted to do a complete inventory of their contents for several years, but had never found the time. As such, when Eile and Sunny had volunteered to do it she took them up on it so she wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. He had always been fascinated to learn what the vaults contained, but rather than being the bizarre, frightening, and macabre objects he expected, just about everything had turned out to be pretty ordinary, and most of it looked like junk. It made him wonder whether running the Caerleon Order would really be as glamorous as he imagined.
As he examined the shelves in front of him in an indifferent manner, something caught his eye. It was partially hidden behind a piece of jagged, multicoloured crystal. He glanced behind himself and saw that his mother was engrossed in her conversation with Eile and Sunny. He stepped closer to the shelves and reached up to feel for it. He grasped what felt like a box-shaped item and took it down. It was a cube, about four inches square and solid black, with a shiny, lacquered finish. It appeared to be all one piece, but as he turned it about in his hands he felt very tiny indentations. He examined it more closely and saw very fine lines, like etchings. They were almost imperceptible, but when the light from the ceiling fixture shined on the surface just right he could see them more clearly.
His heart raced as he realized what it was: a Bedlam block, made from interlocking polycubic pieces. He loved puzzles; Vlad gave them to him to teach him how to think analytically, and rewarded him for each solution with a wolf-ride around the estate. The Bedlam block was supposed to be one of the most difficult anyone could make. Each piece could only be removed one at a time, in a specific sequence, and only when the others were manipulated to free it. The one he held looked especially hard, because not only were the seams hard to see, but unlike a normal block the different pieces were all one colour. Whoever had created it must have been both a master craftsman and an artist, or so he thought, because the design and workmanship could not be compared to any other puzzle he had seen.
He glanced over his shoulder again, and saw that Eile, Sunny, and his mother had their backs to the open vault door. He hurried over to where he had set his pack, which contained the gun Mother had given him along with water and a few bags of snacks. He placed the block inside, then as an afterthought buried it under the snacks. Some part of him said that what he did was wrong; that he should show it to his mother and ask her permission first, but he felt certain that since it was in the vault she wouldn't let him keep it. He understood that, technically, since it had been locked away for safe keeping, the Order either considered it valuable or a threat, but if the latter was true, Mother never would have permitted him to help Eile and Sunny. Besides, it was just a puzzle; what harm could it cause?
"Henry."
He looked up, startled to see her in the doorway staring at him, almost as if she had read his mind. To cover his actions he grabbed the water bottle as he straightened up. "Yes, Mother?"
"I'm sorry to pull you away from your fun," though she flashed a lopsided grin that indicated she knew how he really felt, "but Vlad insists on giving you pistol training."
He grinned back, but tried to sound disappointed. "Yes, Mother."
She stepped away from the doorway. "Run along, then."
He grabbed up the pack and headed out, but paused when he reached his surrogate aunts. "I'm sorry Aunt Eile, Aunt Sunny."
Sunny looked hurt, but Eile displayed a wry smile, as if she understood the real reason. "It's okay," she said, "another time."
He grinned back at her and hurried off. He headed for the north stairwell and ran all the way up to the second floor, then sprinted across the west wing to his bedroom. He threw the pack on the desk and pulled out the block. He looked around for a hiding place, where the servants wouldn't find it, and focused on the linen chest. He knew they only changed out the whole contents once a month, and they had just done so a few days before. He opened it, pushed the piles of towels, sheets, and blankets out of the way, and placed the puzzle on the bottom, letting the linens drop back on top of it. He figured that should keep it hidden for the rest of the month, which would be plenty of time to solve it.
He took the pistol out of the pack and slipped it into one pants pocket while placing the two magazines in the other. He went down to the ground floor and out the back, through the portico and across the terrace and patio into the garden. Vlad met him there and escorted him to the guard station in the security fence, where one of the soldiers waited for them with an electric cart to drive them to the shooting range at the troop compound. Along the way he felt his conscience nag at him. He really shouldn't keep secrets from his own mother, especially considering that the Order she directed was Britain's premier monster hunting organization. Anything it dealt with could be dangerous, but he just couldn't believe the block was a threat. Besides, with a bit of luck he could have the puzzle disassembled in a few days, a week at most, and return it before anyone was the wiser.
After all, he was going to be Director himself one day, and he considered that good practice for the kinds of clandestine activities he would have to engage in at that time.
He felt anxious all the rest of the day. Aelfraed, his mother's butler and his instructor on Order procedures, Mr. Holt, the house Master-at-Arms and his trainer for hand-to-hand combat and fencing, and Dr. Mabuse, the Order's mad scientist and his academic tutor, all noticed and remarked on it, but they had all made the same erroneous assumption, that he simply wanted to hurry the time along so he could play video games with Eile and Sunny. At least he was able to keep his mind focused on his lessons, otherwise he had no doubt they would report his distraction to Mother, who would then confront him about it. While he might keep secrets from her, he had so far never lied to her (not counting fibs) and he had no intention or desire to start, so he would be in a real dilemma if she demanded an explanation for his inattention.
&
nbsp; Despite the fact that the minutes crawled by like hours, he managed to make it to evening without a major mishap. He went back to his bedroom to clean up and change before heading for the tea room. In the hallway he paused and listened to his mother playing her cello. She always did that before high tea, assuming she wasn't involved in some kind of crisis. He figured he must be early; she was never late for anything.
He entered the tea room and watched as Aelfraed and a maid set a table. When he lived with his paternal grandmother, he ate supper, but Mother preferred a meal tea. In many ways it was like a more elaborate version of lunch. He didn't care; Grandmother never ate with him, but Mother always did, assuming there weren't any monsters she had to go kill.
The cello playing stopped, and a few minutes later she entered. She came over to wait beside him.
"I'm afraid I have bad news," she said. He looked up at her; she could mean almost anything.
"Eile and Sunny had to return home; something about their daughters. They're fine, but as a result they won't be able to play with you as they wished tonight."
Connie and Liza; he knew them rather well, because whenever he went to stay with Eile and Sunny they competed with him for their attention. They were ten years younger than him, just old enough they no longer