Chapter 12
The Sapphire Society
When the gang returned to the dorms, Lily, Viv, and Erin went straight over to Melody's room while the boys headed to Hassan's to return the stolen faces. Because the journal held Melody's face, Eddie reluctantly agreed to let the girls have it before leaving with the boys.
Lily wasn't sure how it would go. But as soon as she opened the journal, light flew out and hit Melody. The next instant, Melody was smiling and hugging Lily in gratitude.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" the teenager said. "You are awesome! You really are a superhero!"
Lily could only smile awkwardly as the older girl embraced her and showered her with praise. It could have gone on all night if a reminder hadn't come in from the speakers that curfew was going to start, which gave Lily the chance to break free with the excuse she and Viv had to return to their rooms for bed.
But Lily and Viv never actually got any sleep. As soon as they got back to their room, they immediately flipped open the journal and started reading it.
Eddie was not surprised to hear that when he and Oliver met the girls for breakfast at the dining hall.
"And? What did you find?" Eddie asked. "Is it Mom's?"
"The handwriting's a bit different, but I think so," said Viv. "I sent a text to Grandma asking if Mom used to go to Bluestone Academy and she replied back, yeah. She also sent me a pic of Mom from back in the day wearing our uniform and she was holding a book that looks exactly like the journal."
"And what was exactly in the journal?" Eddie asked. "Was it her diary or something?"
Viv shook her head. "No. Actually, you're not going to believe this, but this is actually a spell book."
The boys straightened up.
"Seriously?" said Eddie. "It's a spell book? A MAGICAL spell book, spell book?"
Viv nodded.
"Yeah," she said. "It's got all kinds of magic spells written inside and tips on how to cast them. I tried one of them out and well . . ."
She looked around nervously and then held her hand out. The others leaned closer.
Viv whispered words that sounded like they came from another planet and then light shined from the middle of her palm. The light was so small, like a single bead used to make homemade bracelets. But it got big reactions from the boys who both dropped their jaws while their eyes popped out of their heads.
"Oh. My - !" Eddie exclaimed.
He was cut off by his sister and Lily who both went, "Shh!"
Eddie clapped his hands over his mouth before he got too loud and looked around. But luckily no one paid him any attention.
Lily glared at him and hissed, "We do not need anymore people finding out our secret, do we?"
Eddie shrank sheepishly and whispered back, "Sorry. But what does it all mean? If that journal really belonged to Mom, and it's a spell book, then does that make her a wizard or something?"
"I would think so," Oliver said. "You never knew your mom could use magic?"
"Of course not," snapped Viv. "We didn't even know she was a student here."
"Hey, I just had a thought," said Eddie. "What if the Schemer had something to do with Mom's disappearance? It makes sense. The Schemer's some evil magical villain making trouble in the school. Mom was a student here and learned magic kind of like what we're doing now. That would make Mom and the Schemer enemies, wouldn't it?"
"That . . . could happen, I guess," said Viv, although she didn't sound very convinced.
Her brother, however, felt confident and continued to push the idea.
"Come on, that has to be it!" he said. "That means if we find the Schemer, we'll find out what happened to Mom!"
"What do you think, Oliver?" asked Lily.
Oliver sat back, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
"I think," he said slowly, "we will have to face the Schemer someday anyway. But before that, we need to find out who he is. And the key to finding that out is the secret workshop that the Schemer used for one of his, well, schemes. There might still be some clues there. And as a bonus, we might learn more about your mom that you guys didn't know before, Viv and Eddie. She might have even been part of the Sapphire Society."
Lily, Viv and Eddie blinked. "The Sapphire Society?"
"It's a secret club of Bluestone students who can use magic," Oliver explained.
"And you know about this secret club how?" asked Lily.
Oliver answered by pulling a blue book out of his bag. It was the same one that had Hassan's face in it.
"You're not the only ones who decided to do some late night reading," Oliver said. "After I gave Hassan his face back, I brought the book back to my room and took a look at it. You were right, Lily. It IS a yearbook, one made for members of the Sapphire Society. And it's got all kinds of photos of students doing all kinds of crazy, impossible things. Here, take a look."
Oliver flipped open the book and laid it out for the others to see. As he turned the pages, Lily saw pictures of students levitating furniture, shoot lightning out of wands, breathe fire out of their mouths, and fly around on broomsticks. There was even a photo of guys and gals having a ball dance on water at an indoor pool.
"According to the book's intro," Oliver said, "the Sapphire Society's been around since the school first opened. I suspect the workshop we found might have been a hangout of theirs."
"And you think Mom's a member?" asked Viv.
"Her journal's full of magic spells, and the Sapphire Society's a club of guys and gals who can use magic," Oliver said with a shrug. "So there's a good chance."
"Whatever happened to the Sapphire Society?" Lily asked. "Are they still around?"
"Both good questions," said Oliver. "And the only way to find out is . . . "
Lily finished, " . . . to go back to the workshop."
And that's exactly where the gang went.
As soon as school was done for the day, Lily and the gang went straight to the library, where they met Alejandro and the other library helpers. Melody and Hassan were already back shelving books and were more than happy to see their heroes again so soon.
After Oliver told the library helpers what the gang planned to do, Alejandro said, "In that case, you should sign up to be library helpers like us! That way you can come and go almost anytime you want. Let me go ask Mr. Doodleberg!"
Before anyone could stop him, Alejandro ran off. He came back a moment later, shoving a piece of paper into Lily's hands to sign.
Lily had no plans to become a library helper, but it didn't look like she could talk her way out of it. So, with a resigned sigh, she signed the paper. A moment later, she, Oliver and the Waller twins were welcomed as part of the library's workforce.
The gang wasted no time to return to a certain aisle of books where a magic circle sent them straight to the secret workshop used by the mysterious Sapphire Society.
Erin let out a low whistle. "Wow, this place is impressive," she said while looking around. "It's like straight out of a top-grade, fantasy-themed video game."
She joined the gang to explore the workshop after winning a game of rock-paper-scissors with the other library helpers. This was the second time she set foot in the chamber, but it was no less breath-taking than last time. It was probably more amazing now because she didn't have to worry about those flying books ripping her face off this time.
The gang had wary eyes on them, but the books just flapped about from shelf to shelf over their heads, ignoring them.
"Hey, guys?" Eddie called out. "Look at what's on the wall over the crystal ball."
Lily turned and looked up. Hanging on the wall above the big, blue crystal ball was a scroll. There was big cursive writing that read:
"Honorable Members of the Sapphire Society: Lily Wong/Lady Sapphire (President)"
"Well, no doubt about it now," said Viv. "This workshop really was the Sapphire Society's hangout."
"And Lily's the president!" exclaimed Eddie.
"What's the Sapphire Society?" asked Erin. After the others explained, her eyes grew wide and she went, "Wow. A real secret club with a hideout buried right underneath the school. I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it."
While looking at the scroll. Oliver rubbed his chin and went, "Hmm. I guess this explains what happened to them. There was nobody in the Sapphire Society left. The last members probably graduated years ago without finding anyone to keep the club going."
"Then, what's my name doing on that scroll?" asked Lily.
"You're the master of the workshop, remember?" Oliver replied. "The workshop probably thinks the Society is back in business and named you the president."
"Hey," Erin cut in. "Any chance I could get my name on that scroll?"
Everyone looked at her.
"You know?" said Viv. "That's actually a good idea. Let's all join the new Sapphire Society! What do you say, Lily?"
Honestly, Lily didn't care. She would much rather her name not be on the scroll at all, or at least not add "Lady Sapphire" next to it.
But against everyone's expectant gazes, she folded and said, "Sure, why not? But how do we do that?"
That was when the room's robot Lily voice spoke up.
"To become a member of the Sapphire Society," it said, "please place your right hand on the crystal ball and swear an oath to follow the rules of the Sapphire Society and keep its secrets. The president and master of workshop must also place her hand on the ball and make it official."
"That sounds easy enough," said Oliver. "I'll go first!"
"What? No fair!" Erin pouted in dismay.
Oliver put rushed over to the crystal ball, put his hand on it and smirked at the others, singing, "The early bird catches the worm!"
Lily rolled her eyes and joined the teen detective by the table. As soon as she put her hand on the crystal ball, it began to glow.
"Feels pleasantly warm," quipped Oliver.
"Let's just get this over with," said Lily. "Now how should we start?"
"Oh! How about this?"
Oliver gave a suggestion, but it was not a suggestion that Lily liked.
"Seriously?" she said. "You want me to do that? No way! That's embarrassing."
"I think it's cool," said Eddie.
"Come on, you should totally do it," said Erin.
Lily looked at them all in disbelief. Is everyone in this school into cheesy stunts? She wondered while shaking her head.
She turned to Viv for help, but all she got back was a half smile and a shrug.
Lily rolled her eyes and sighed.
"Fine," she said. "Let's just hmget this over with."
"Yes!" Oliver cheered and did a triumphant fist pump. But it just made Lily shake her head and roll her eyes up while sighing again.
"She really is related to Mr. Lin," Eddie whispered to his sister.
Remembering how Mr. Lin sighed and rolled his eyes away when he let the library helpers off the hook for breaking into the library, Viv nodded and went, "Uh-huh."
Lily cleared her throat and unenthusiastically began the ritual.
She asked in a deadpan tone, "Do you swear to uphold the rules of the Society and protect its secrets in the name of justice?"
They were lines Oliver came up with in the spit
Oliver seriously and solemnly replied, "I do."
"Then by the power vested in me, I declare you a member of the Sapphire Society!"
Lily repeated this ritual three more times for the others. Erin was the last.
When Lily was done, four more names appeared beneath hers on the scroll, written in the same fancy cursive. Except for hers, Oliver's name was the only one with a title, which was "Vice-President".
"Hmm," he went, looking up at his name. "I'm honestly not that happy about being second place, but I guess you did win this room fair and square, Lily."
"You're welcome to have it," Lily said, all serious.
Oliver, however, replied, "No thanks. I wouldn't want to upset the dynamic we got going on now."
"This is so awesome," said Erin, as giddy as a little kid at a carnival. "I'm officially part of a secret club now. I can't wait to tell the others about this!"
Something told Lily she would be doing the ritual again a few more times in the foreseeable future. And she didn't like it.
Oliver clapped his hands and rubbed them together.
"Okay, gang," he said. "We don't have a lot of time left, so let's hurry up and find us some clues!"
Everyone split up. Each one took a bookshelf and quickly flipped through any book that stood out to them, except for Eddie who dropped down and crawled all over the floor while holding a magnifying glass to his face.
After a while of quietly getting to know the workshop better from top to bottom, Lily broke silence and said, "Anyone found anything yet?"
"Nope," answered Eddie.
"Nada," said Viv.
"Lots," said Oliver, "but nothing we're looking for."
It was the same for Lily. Quickly reading through all those books, many of them yearbooks and journals, Lily learned a lot of interesting things about the workshop, but they were all about stuff that Oliver had already found out: that the workshop was a hangout for the Sapphire Society, that the Sapphire Society was around for a really, really long time, and that the Sapphire Society was a club for students who could use magic. Some of the books had magic spells that Lily found useful and took pictures of with her smartphone to take a look at later.
"You know," she said, "I never thought detective work would have so much reading in it."
"That's just how it is," said Oliver. "These books are probably the only leads we got to finding out more about the magical side of the school and the Schemer.
"And our mom," Eddie added.
"And Eddie and Viv's mom," said Oliver. "Besides, it's not like a clue will just fall into our hands just like that."
He snapped his fingers, and then -
"Hey, guys!" Viv shouted. "I found something!"
Everyone turned to see her waving a piece of paper over her head.
"I think it's a clue," she said. "It just fell into my hand just like that."
Oliver stared at the piece of paper and muttered, "I stand corrected."
"Don't leave us hanging," said Eddie. "What is that?"
"See for yourself," said Viv. "It's a map. And its got Mom's name on it."
The paper Viv found turned out to be a map drawn by the twins' very own mother. Mary Ann Duskbell's name could be found scrawled on the top next to a huge section that got torn off. Lily wondered if maybe there was more written after the name, but there was no way to know now.
"It looks like a map of the whole school," Viv said. "And look here on the bottom right corner."
She put her finger next to a small scribble on the corner that read, "The Sapphire Society."
"I figured as much already, but this just puts the nail on the coffin," she said.
Eddie exclaimed excitedly, "Mom really was a part of the Sapphire Society. I knew it! If this place used to be her hangout when she was here, then the Schemer really did have something to do with her vanishing! And look at that over there."
He pointed at a big, red X-mark on a section of the map.
"X marks the spot," he said. "I bet this map leads to something really important. Maybe even to Mom herself!"
"Yeah," Viv said, halfhearted and eyes looking away. "Maybe."
"Then it's decided," said Oliver. "This place with the big, red X is where we need to go next."
**********
"By the way, Oliver," said Lily as she and the others left the workshop, "did you ever find out who sent us that phone message that warned us about Uncle Viceroy last night?"
Oliver shook his head and replied, "No, sadly. But to be able to hack our phones to send that warning as if it were a public alert and then erase all traces later, whoever it was must be very good with computers. And they've been watching us. Maybe they still are."
No comments:
Post a Comment