The Elemental Detectives by Patrice Lawrence

Author:Patrice Lawrence
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: 2022-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

THE SERPENTINE

Robert turned around. The sleepwalkers stood on the path behind him. A butcher’s boy was closest, slightly swaying, his basket still loaded with sausages. He held a lantern. The light was weak but enough for Robert to see that the boy’s eyes were open but unmoving.

Just behind the butcher’s boy, two girls stood in the shadows, their bonnets pulled low over their faces. Wisps of yellow escaped from their lips. There was a man carrying a flaming torch. He looked like a farmer. Beside him was a gardener still pushing a wheelbarrow, and two men in sturdy boots and neat jackets – sedan chairmen. Standing between them was a thin man in torn checked breeches. Robert counted perhaps ten or eleven more sleepwalkers in the shadows behind them. Some held lanterns, others torches that made dark shapes flick across the path. They didn’t blink, or speak. Robert wondered if, just beyond his sight, the ghosts were watching.

The man in checked breeches opened his mouth. His sick breath merged with the glow of the lantern. “Robert Strong, she has something to give you.”

“Do you know this man?” Marisee whispered.

“No.”

“Then we won’t stay long enough to find out how he knows your name and what she has for you.”

But Robert did want to know. He was suddenly sure that the man had something very important to tell him. And she … whatever she had for him, it was important. He knew that.

“Robert!” Marisee was pulling at his arm. “Let’s go.”

“Robert Strong?” The two girls stepped forward on each side of the man. Their voices were too old for their faces. “You know what she has, don’t you?”

Robert thought he did. He hoped he did. He wanted it more than anything else. He felt his head sag. Staying awake was too much effort. Sleep was so much better, softly squeezing wakefulness out of him. When he next opened his eyes, would he be standing outside the pie shop again? He didn’t want to smell mutton and potato and gravy. He wanted oranges, green Barbados oranges, when the fruit was only just ready to pick. Their scent was so strong, he could almost taste them—

“Fight it, Robert!” Marisee yelled in his ear, jerking him awake.

“I don’t want to fight it!” he yelled back. “I want to see my brother!”

It had slipped out. He hadn’t wanted anyone to know about Zeke.

“Brother?” Marisee gave him a surprised look.

The sleepwalkers were moving, closer and closer.

“But you want to save your friend, Lizzie, too,” she said. “Don’t you?”

Lizzie? Who was…? Oh, yes! She was the person who had been kind to him. That’s why he was here. Of course he did. How could he have forgotten?

“I do,” he said.

Marisee brought her face close to his. “Then we run after three,” she whispered. “One. Two.”

She didn’t wait until “three”. She snatched the lantern from the gentleman in checked trousers, grabbed Robert’s hand and ran.

They veered off the path that was blocked by the sleepwalkers, swerving between the trees and across the grass.

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