Rescue Princesses #3: The Moonlight Mystery (5 page)

Lulu couldn’t get to sleep that night. Through the open window came the buzz of insects and the distant yowl of a leopard. She kept thinking about the lion tracks and the empty hollow where the little cubs had lived. She shut her eyes tight, but sleep didn’t come. It didn’t help when Tufty jumped up on her bed and started nuzzling her cheek and purring deeply into her ear.

“Tufty!” she laughed, pushing him off. “Are you trying to tell me you’re hungry again?”

Tufty padded up and down the blanket, still purring. So, with a wide yawn, Lulu threw off the covers and climbed out of bed. She crept down the dark stairs and felt her way toward the kitchen. Everyone was in bed and all the rooms lay in quiet shadow.

Lulu filled the baby bottle up with milk from the refrigerator and fastened the lid back on. She smiled. This would stop Tufty from feeling hungry for a while. Turning to hurry back upstairs, she caught a glimpse of light through the window. It was round and yellow in the darkness.

Running to the window, Lulu looked out into the blackness.

A full moon turned the garden a shadowy silver. Beyond the high palace wall, Shimmer Rock glittered brightly.

Lulu stared at where the light had been. She saw it again, right over by the old gray wall next to the gardener’s shed.

Suddenly, she realized that she’d seen a light in the same place from her bedroom window two nights ago. What could it be? Was it someone with a flashlight? Nobody should be out there in the garden. The palace guards always stayed by the gate, and everyone else was asleep.

She set the bottle of milk down on the kitchen table, her heart beating like an Undalan drum. Something strange was happening out there in the darkness. She dashed toward the stairs. It was time to wake the Rescue Princesses and find out exactly what was going on!

The princesses slipped into light cotton dresses and plain silver tiaras, and crept silently down the corridor. A loud snoring came from Olaf’s bedroom. Lulu looked at her friends and, trying hard not to giggle, they sneaked down the stairs and out into the dark courtyard.

“Where are we going?” whispered Emily.

“This way,” hissed Lulu, leading them through an archway at the far end of the courtyard. Beyond the orange trees was the vegetable patch, and behind that was the high wall that surrounded the palace grounds.

“It really is such an amazing mountain!” said Clarabel, gazing at Shimmer Rock as it sparkled.

But Lulu had seen the mountain like that a thousand times, and hurried them on toward the shed. “The light came from right over here,” she said.

Jaminta tried the shed door, but it was locked. “There’s nothing here, Lulu. Are you sure you weren’t dreaming?”

“Totally sure!” Lulu walked right up to the shed. “There used to be a huge pile of things here.” She pointed at the ground on one side of the shed. “There were wheelbarrows, shovels, and sacks of dirt. But everything’s been moved.”

She stepped forward and her foot made a dull
thud
against the ground. She stopped, surprised.

“What was that?” said Clarabel nervously.

Lulu moved her other foot, which made a thudding noise, too.

“That’s strange. It sounds really hollow,” said Emily.

Kneeling down, Lulu swept her hand across the ground and found that the loose earth moved aside easily beneath her fingers. She continued brushing it away until she reached a solid rectangle of wood set into the ground.

“I didn’t know there was anything under here,” she cried. “It’s always been covered up with gardening tools before.”

“Not so loud,” breathed Clarabel. “You’ll wake the palace.”

Jaminta knelt down beside her and tapped gently on the wooden rectangle. “It’s like a door lying in the ground.” She brushed more earth aside to reveal a ring-shaped handle made of metal and a small hole for a key. “Look! Here’s the door handle and the lock.”

“If it
is
a door, then let’s open it,” exclaimed Lulu.

“Shouldn’t we figure out what it is first?” asked Clarabel.

Lulu was already yanking on the handle. The door gave a huge creak but held firmly shut.

“Let’s all try pulling together!” said Emily.

So all the princesses grabbed the handle and heaved as hard as they could. But the door still wouldn’t budge.

“We need the key,” said Lulu. “But who would have it? No one knows this door is here.”

“Someone must know,” replied Jaminta. “I bet the person with the key is the same person you saw with a light.”

Lulu looked around the garden. There was no sign of the light anymore. “I don’t know who that could be. No one’s ever talked about this.”

She broke off suddenly. A strange noise came from below the wooden rectangle, making them jump.

“What was that?” said Emily.

Lulu crouched down and put her ear against the door. The other princesses did the same.

They waited for a moment, silent in the darkness. Then the noise came again from deep down, making the door shake.

The princesses jumped to their feet.

“There’s an animal down there!” Clarabel gasped.

“It’s a lion,” said Lulu, her eyes wide. “That’s the sound of a lion’s roar.”

The princesses looked at one another excitedly.

“Maybe it’s our missing lions!” cried Emily. “But why would they be underground?”

“We’ll have to go down there and find out!” Lulu tugged on the handle again, but it wouldn’t budge.

“I know something we can use to unlock it,” said Jaminta. “Come on!”

The four girls raced back through the moonlit courtyard into the palace. Jaminta stopped in the kitchen, searching through the silverware drawer. “It looks like an old lock. Maybe we can open it with a long piece of metal without needing the right key.” She pulled out a fork with wide prongs. “This might do it.”

The other princesses crowded around to look.

With a sudden
click
, the light went on, dazzling their eyes. They turned around in shock to find Prince Olaf standing in the kitchen doorway. He was wearing striped pajamas that were so big the sleeves hung over his hands.

“Hello,” he said, beaming. “What’s going on?”

“It’s a … it’s a …” stuttered Emily.

“It’s a midnight feast,” snapped Lulu.

“Yummy!” said Olaf, sitting down at the kitchen table. “Can I join you?”

Lulu watched him in horror. There, right in front of him, was the baby bottle with milk in it for Tufty. She’d left it there when she went out in the garden to search for the strange light.

Olaf picked it up. “What’s this?”

The princesses exchanged glances.

“It’s mine!” said Lulu defiantly. “I still like to drink milk like that.” To prove it, she grabbed the baby bottle and took a huge slurp.

“Really? From a baby bottle?” said Olaf, looking puzzled.

“That’s right,” said Lulu, taking another drink. The bottle made a glugging sound. Emily gave a snort and turned away to hide her laughter.

With Olaf waiting expectantly for the midnight feast to begin, the girls began to look for some food. Clarabel found leftover pudding and spooned it into dishes. Lulu added some chocolate. They gulped theirs down, and then watched impatiently as Olaf ate his incredibly slowly.

Suddenly, footsteps sounded in the hallway. The princesses froze, listening as the steps came closer. They exchanged worried looks, but it was too late to clear everything away. The door swung open and Lady Malika walked into the room. “Princesses!” She raised her dark eyebrows in surprise. “What’s going on, and why are you all dressed?”

“We’re having a midnight feast,” said the princesses, all at exactly the same time.

Lady Malika’s eyebrows rose even higher. “Is everything all right, Lulu? I thought I heard a strange noise coming from your room, a sort of scratching sound. Is there something in there?”

“It was probably just a lizard walking on the roof,” said Lulu quickly. “We should go upstairs and get some sleep now.”

“Yes, I think you should,” replied Lady Malika. “And you as well, Prince Olaf.”

The girls trooped upstairs, said good night, and closed their doors. Lulu waited until she’d heard Olaf’s bedroom door click shut and her aunt’s door close, too. Then she opened hers a tiny crack. Emily, Clarabel, and Jaminta were peeking out of their rooms as well. Quietly, with their very best ninja steps, they prowled downstairs and out into the garden.

“I just hope this works on that lock,” murmured Jaminta, tucking the fork she’d borrowed into her pocket.

The princesses reached the garden shed in seconds and crouched down next to the door in the ground. The rectangle of wood was easy to see now that its covering of earth was swept to one side. Jaminta wiggled one prong of the fork inside the lock. She twisted and jiggled, until finally there was a low
clunk
.

“I think I did it,” she said. “Let’s try the handle again.”

Lulu and Emily grabbed the handle together and yanked it toward them. The rectangle of wood swung up with an enormous
creak
. A hole opened up in front of them, with broad stone steps stretching down into darkness.

“Where do you think it leads?” asked Clarabel.

“There’s only one way to find out,” replied Lulu, climbing down the steps. “But we have to be really quiet, in case a lion is loose down here.”

Clarabel gulped, then she and Emily followed Lulu carefully down the steps.

Jaminta found a wheelbarrow and parked it in front of the hole.

“It won’t hide the hole from close up,” she explained to the others, “but at least it’ll keep anyone from seeing it from far away. I don’t want to pull the door shut in case we can’t open it from the inside.”

“Good idea,” said Clarabel, shuddering at the thought of being trapped underground.

“We should have brought flashlights,” Lulu called back.

“I brought my light bracelet. You take it, Lulu.” Jaminta pulled an emerald bracelet from her pocket and passed it forward. The jewels lit up the tunnel with a bright green glow.

“Thanks!” Lulu held the bracelet in front of her and continued down the stone steps, followed by the others.

It seemed like a long way down. But when the stairs ended, they stood in a narrow tunnel with a floor of reddish earth. The air smelled musty.

They tiptoed through the passageway, finding their way by the light from the bracelet. At first the tunnel sloped down, until gradually it began to slope uphill again. The tunnel wall felt cool beneath Lulu’s fingers.

“I wonder how far we’ve gone,” murmured Emily.

“Hold on!” whispered Lulu. “I think I hear something.”

They stopped and listened. A faint sound of meowing drifted down the tunnel.

“It sounds like Tufty when he wants some milk,” said Clarabel.

Lulu’s heart beat faster. “It must be the missing lion cubs!”

Running silently, the princesses followed the sound. The tunnel twisted and turned, and the meowing grew louder.

At last, Lulu stopped at a bend and held up her hand to signal the others to wait. Breathing fast, she peered around the corner. Half of her wanted to find the missing cubs quickly and hug them all tight. The other half of her knew that if the lioness was nearby, then they were all in danger. Terrible danger.