The Daykeeper's Grimoire (16 page)

“Thanks,” I say as we head back to the stairs and the book. “I just hope it works.”

“Can we talk more about this Barend Schlacter now?” Uncle Li asks.

“I’m sorry Uncle Li, I just can’t right now. Can we discuss it later?”

Uncle Li nods, but doesn’t look happy about it.

I dive right back into sketching so I don’t have to think about what I just did to that poor little monkey. By the time I finish drawing the inside of the tower, I figure at least an hour has gone by. Turning back to the beginning of the sketchbook, which I started on the trip out here, I leaf through my first drawings: San Francisco as we were leaving, our lion’s-head door knocker, the café on the corner, the Golden Gate Bridge at dusk, the front of our tall skinny Victorian house.

Pages later are some sketches of the big dark castle in Edinburgh, which (you can tell just by looking at it) has to be haunted, and some sketches of the train station there. Then there’s my first sketch of our castle. Now knowing it as well as I do, I can tell what’s out of proportion and wrong about the picture.

I hear someone fumbling at the door and instinctively run for the darkest corner and Uncle Li turns off his lantern and joins me. Because the two other corners are lit up, we are invisible in the dark where we are. I see the door open and the dim light of a small flashlight.

I can’t tell who it is until he says, “Hello? Hello?”

“It’s Tenzo!” I whisper. He must hear me because the flashlight swings around to the corner we’re in and shines directly on us.

Caity? Dr. Li? Is that you?” He shines the flashlight on his face so it lights up and I see that Mr. Papers is on his shoulder. “Look, it’s me, Dr. Tenzo.”

I’m now totally confused about how he is behaving, and I’m pissed that Mr. Papers is with him; Tenzo must have grabbed the poor little guy on his way to find Mrs. Findlay.

“Why did you lock us down here?” I ask.

Uncle Li holds my hand as the flashlight comes back in our direction.

“What are you talking about?” Tenzo says as he comes down the stairs toward us.

Uncle Li and I take a step back, which puts us against the wall. The flashlight beam in our eyes makes it impossible for us to see him.

“Let’s not play games here,” Uncle Li says.

Tenzo replies, “Listen, I don’t know what you think I’ve done—”

“So you’re denying you locked us down here to translate these Sanskrit books?” I yell.

Tenzo laughs. “I’m one of the preeminent scholars of ancient languages. Why would I need
you
to translate anything for me?”

“Oh,” I say, deflated and confused.

Uncle Li strikes a match to light his lantern and the room brightens up again. Tenzo looks around, amazed. I look at Uncle Li and shake my head—I hadn’t wanted him to see the tower.

“Well, then how did you end up down here? And what are you snooping around for all the time?” I ask. I look at Mr. Papers on Tenzo’s shoulder and wonder why he’s not running over to me. Maybe he’s mad at me for shoving him into a wet pipe. When I pat my thigh he finally hops off of Tenzo and into my arms, still damp.

“Look, I didn’t go on the whisky tour. I was in the parlor reading the newspaper and having some tea and your monkey ran in soaking wet, grabbed my newspaper, and tore it up. He started building an origami tower, and then he made two people and put them inside the tower. After that, he motioned for me to follow him and I did. That’s the whole story.”

Tenzo is wearing a blue button-down shirt and there are long, dark sweat stains coming from his armpits. His glasses slip a bit down his nose, which are also beaded with sweat.

“And Mr. Papers was able to open the panel?” Uncle Li asks.

“He showed me where to put the key—fascinating that the three hares were used, by the way. Then he led me into the chamber, where, I must admit, I saw all the Drocane writing.”

“You know what those symbols are? The writing in the square spirals?” I ask.

“Yes, it’s a little-known script called Drocane. It’s actually my specialty,” he replies.

“What are the chances of that?” Uncle Li asks as he looks at me. “So if you had nothing to do with this, then who locked us down here?” he asks.

“I have no idea. Honestly, there is quite a lot I haven’t told you about why I’m here, but I had nothing to do with locking you in.” His eyes wander to the books Uncle Li is clutching. “I would like to look at the ancient Sanskrit books though.”

I want to get out of the tower while we can so I suggest we leave and meet in the parlor. I hustle Tenzo through the chamber and my room as quickly as possible, then lock my door and take a moment to catch my breath.

By the time I get to the parlor, Uncle Li and Tenzo have already requested tea. Mrs. Findlay brings it in along with a three-tiered tray of goodies. Once she leaves, Uncle Li starts right in. “I believe you were going to explain yourself?” he says.

Tenzo takes a deep breath, then looks up and rubs his hands together. “Where to start?”

“You tell me,” I say. “How about why you came here in the first place?”

He looks right at me. “Well, that was entirely because of
you
, my dear.” I shudder as he calls me dear. He continues. “It all started when Dr. Middleford emailed me a copy of a rubbing you had taken. It was a beautiful sight, one I had been waiting to see for many, many years.”

“Where had you seen Drocane before?” Uncle Li asks.

“At home. My mother has one of the only Drocane codices in existence,” Tenzo says, grabbing a scone. He sets it on the napkin draped over his knee. “Before my mother changed our names back to her maiden name of Tenzo, my last name was Xu,” he says, as if this is supposed to mean something. We both look at him blankly.

Tenzo’s eyes move from me to Uncle Li and back again. “Have you not heard of Xu Bao Cheng?” he asks.

Uncle Li gasps. “No! You’re related to the man who helped Fergus build the tower?”

“He was my grandfather’s grandfather,” Tenzo replies.

“You could have just seen Xu Bao Cheng’s name on the tower and made that up,” I say. “Or maybe ‘Xu’ is as common as ‘Smith’ in the United States.”

Tenzo shrugs. “What do you want to know? How can I prove that I am a descendant of Xu Bao Cheng?”

“What do you know about the tower?” I ask.

“Very little. My mother never told me where this was, for fear I’d go looking for my father when I was too young,” Tenzo says.

“Where was your father?” Uncle Li asks.

“My father,” he says as he picks up the scone and then puts it back down again. “My father died here at the castle when I was just a small boy.”

“Died?” My voice comes out shrill and high. “Here?”

Now two people’s fathers have died at this castle?

“My father was here working with your great-grandfather, Robert Mac Fireland, during World War II. Although he was Chinese, my mother was Japanese. As soon as the Japanese became allies of the Germans, he had to go underground. He would have been thrown into prison or worse had he been found.” He pours more tea. “Robert was kind enough to risk his life to help my father—and both gave up much in order to protect what is in this tower.”

“So what was your father doing with Robert?” I ask. “I mean, why was he here?”

“
‘Preparing the way’
was how my mother put it,” he says, removing his glasses and wiping his greasy face with a napkin.

“Preparing the way for what?” I ask. I sip my tea, which has gotten a little cold.

Instead of answering, Tenzo looks at Uncle Li and then at me. “So what do
you
know about the tower?”

I feel like it’s a standoff:
How much do you know? No, how much do
you
know?
Neither of us say anything.

Tenzo breaks first and says, “Let me tell you how this all started, centuries ago. Xu Bao Cheng lived in Dunhuang in the western Chinese province of Gansu. Although it’s obscure, you may have heard of this place—it’s been in the news recently as one of the oldest sightings of the three hares symbol.”

“Like the three hares carved on the panel in my room?” I ask.

He nods. “Like the Flower of Life, it’s a very old symbol that’s been found all over the world yet has not been accurately decoded. Anyway, Dunhuang was once the beginning of the Silk Road, the trading route through Asia to Europe. There is a massive network of caves in Dunhuang that archaeologists are just beginning to discover. Of course, Xu Bao Cheng had known of them all his life.”

“And this is where he met Fergus?” I ask.

Tenzo nods. “One day Fergus showed up at Xu Bao Cheng’s house and said, ‘I think we’re supposed to meet.’”

“In China?” I ask. “How did he get there? Why did he pick Xu Bao Cheng?”

“Crazy as it seems, Xu Bao Cheng had been waiting for him,” Tenzo replies. “He was the Keeper of the Caves.”

“What’s the Keeper of the Caves?”

“The Dunhuang Caves are full of documents, fabrics, paintings, and relics, kind of like a library. But in addition to things cataloged for history and reference, a secret part of the cave holds …” he pauses, looking for the right word, “I suppose you would call it ‘esoteric’ information.”

“Chinese esoterica?” Uncle Li asks.

Tenzo shakes his head. “Not exactly. This information belongs to the world, but much of it came from the Maya.”

“Another Maya connection …” Uncle Li says.

“I don’t get why Fergus would go there and how he would know to look for this Xu Bao Cheng guy,” I say.

“Well, it’s all part of the prophecy.” He looks at me, then Uncle Li, and then me again. “Do you know anything about this?” he asks.

I’m about to say yes, but Uncle Li says, “What prophecy?”

“Remember at dinner we were talking about how the Maya predicted, to the day, when Cortez and his conquistadors were coming?” Uncle Li and I both nod. “Well,” Tenzo continues, “because by their calendars they could predict when things would happen, the Maya had sent many of their Elders to caves to keep their most precious information safe. But they also sent a few groups of Elders far away, to all ends of the Earth, so keeping the Mayan prophecy alive would be guaranteed.”

“So Mayan Elders made it to Dunhuang?” I ask.

Tenzo nods and says, “And to the Isle of Huracan.”

“Right here?” I say, pointing down to the ground. “In this place?”

“Yes. But they were old, the journey was arduous, and they didn’t last long here. They had just enough time to find this energy center—where the tower is—and place their relics.”

I glance at Uncle Li to see if he will give away anything about the calendar, the cogs below the tower. At this point, knowing what I know, I’m starting to trust Tenzo, but I don’t think Uncle Li is. His face gives nothing away as he asks, “What happened to the Elders in Dunhuang?”

“Three of them arrived in 1518. They were very strong and lived there for years. The knowledge they imparted has been handed down to one person in each generation. Since then each man, the Keeper of the Cave, has passed this information to his first son. The last one was Xu Bao Cheng.”

“Why did Xu Bao Cheng leave the caves and come here with Fergus?”

“The prophecy said that a man from the west would come when the Mayan Long Count Calendar read 12-8-4-2-0.”

Uncle Li asks, “Did he make it on the date?”

“That was the summer of 1780. Fergus had been robbed of everything a couple weeks earlier. They’d even taken his shoes. But he made it to Dunhuang with bare feet the day of the prediction. Of course he knew nothing of this, he was just compelled to keep going, driven to find this person and this place he had been dreaming about.”

Mrs. Findlay stands in the entryway to the parlor and says, “Knock knock.”

She must know something intense is going on because she doesn’t move until Uncle Li says, “Yes, please come in.”

She wrings her hands together. “Forgive the interruption, but the Laird just called. The van’s axle has broken—no injuries, the driver just backed into a rock while parking at a whisky distillery. Perhaps the driver was tasting as well …”

“But everyone is okay? Are the guests upset?” Uncle Li asks.

Mrs. Findlay laughs. “Quite the contrary. They have had a lot of drink and are thinking of this as some sort of adventure! Being stuck in Ballamorgh overnight is like being shipwrecked in heaven; a quaint little town with fine inns and, most important, a lot of single malt Scotch.”

Uncle Li and Tenzo laugh and I try to smile, but I am seriously worried about tonight, without my parents here. Remembering the last time my parents were not home at night, a chill runs down my spine like ice water. “Will you be staying the night?” I ask Mrs. Findlay.

“Yes, of course dear. I just sent Thomas off minutes ago to find a replacement part, so it should be all sorted out by tomorrow.”

“Wait, Thomas just left from
here
?” I ask.

“Aye,” she answers. “Why, did you need him for something?”

I shake my head. “No, but I thought he was driving the van.”

“Nae, lassie, the tour van comes with a driver. Thomas has been here all day.”

Uncle Li and I catch eyes, thinking the same thing. Would
Thomas
have locked us in?

“Can I get you anything else, then?” Mrs. Findlay asks.

“No thanks,” I reply. I pull at a string on the hem of my T-shirt and it starts unraveling. I find it impossible to stop, even though I know it will ruin the shirt.

When Mrs. Ferguson is gone, Tenzo asks, “Were you thinking that Thomas may have locked you in?”