The Undrowned Child by Michelle Lovric

Author:Michelle Lovric
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780375898617
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2011-08-08T22:00:00+00:00

late at night, June 11, 1899

It was the Gray Lady.

Signorina Grigiogatta did not light the lamp. She looked in the mirror, seeming quite at ease in the moonlight. She licked her wrists and ran them over her face. And then she bent her head and licked each of her shoulders.

Lastly, she pulled a long gray tail out from under her petticoat and licked it thoroughly, and then tucked it back into her voluminous skirt. She turned her attention to her fingers. Long glinting nails like little scimitars popped out. She curved her fingers around and they retracted. Then she drew a large satin purse from her handbag and reapplied a thick layer of white cosmetic paint to her face. Finally, she left.

Outside the ladies’, Teo heard a curious sound, as if the graceful Gray Lady had fallen lightly to the ground. Perhaps she had dropped something? When the Gray Lady started walking there seemed to be enough footsteps for two light pairs of feet.

When the Gray Lady’s many footsteps had faded away, Teo rushed out to tell Renzo about the furry tail and curious behavior.

“Where is she now?” asked Renzo.

“I think she went back to her office. I heard the door shut down there.”

“Perhaps she’s just working late.”

The children tried to put Signorina Grigiogatta out of their minds. Lighting up their fish-kites, they roamed up and down the corridors.

The trouble was, clever as they’d been to get into the Archives, they had not really thought about how to find what they wanted. This was made all the more difficult because they didn’t have any idea what it would look like. The mermaids had warned that the Almanac might even be disguised as something other than a book.

“But,” reasoned Teo, “it must be rather like a book, or it couldn’t be in the Archives, could it? Not without sticking out a mile.”

They went hunting along the shelves till they found the department for the fourteenth century. The Tiepolo boxes were sealed with fearsome padlocks and labels inscribed Most Secret and Non Toccare, Pena La Morte, “Don’t Touch on Pain of Death.”

The children clambered up the shelves on a pair of library ladders and forced open one of the locks with a corner of The Key to the Secret City. The lid of the box rose up with a groan like somebody dying.

“Watch out!” yelled Renzo, as dozens of sheets of parchment flew out and formed themselves into arrowheads, with points sharp as needles.

The parchment arrows wheeled around in formation, like a flock of white bats. Then they swung into the direction of Renzo and Teo, gathering speed for an attack. The children cried out as sharp paper cut their ears, their eyelids and mouths.

“It’s worse than the sharks!” screamed Teo.

“Shhh!” whispered Renzo. “No noise! Signorina Grigiogatta will hear us.”

It was too late to be quiet. The ladders on which the children perched were already teetering dangerously. One more assault by the parchment arrows and they tumbled noisily to the ground. Teo fell on top of Renzo, who grunted in pain.

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