Read Online The Blackhope Enigma by Teresa Flavin - Free Book Online Page B

twenty-first century from our guests.”
    Inko nodded more cheerfully as he picked up plates and cups.
    “I remember when I first arrived in Arcadia,” Hugo continued, “and was astonished to meet Lady Ishbel. I did not expect to find anyone here, let alone Sir Innes’s niece. And then to find out that Lady Ishbel was not the only one here, that others had also found their way in —”
    Inko paused in his tasks, the serious look back on his face.
    “Why, Inko, what makes you look so worried? Are you wondering about Lady Ishbel and the others? I think we are quite safe here. We have been for some time now.”
    The servant boy nodded.
    “We will continue to have as little to do with them as possible,” Hugo said resolutely. “And we shall hope they keep to themselves. After all, we don’t want to scare away our new friends.”
    Inko picked his way through the forest to his hut without need of a torch. He knew every twig and branch, every lump in the ground. Meeting the two young strangers from the other world had made him think of Sir Innes, who had gone back there long ago and never returned. He had died, Lady Ishbel had told him when she arrived.
He was my uncle
, she said,
and he left me the secret of how to come into Arcadia. Now I am your mistress
. And she had been, until she had vanished below, like the others.
    Inko, too, had once had a life in the other world, though he couldn’t remember it. Sir Innes had told him he had been a cabin boy on his ship, the
Speranza Nera
. Inko had never been able to talk, but the captain had said that he was the best cabin boy he had known.
    Inko tensed as his mind snapped back to the dark wood he was crossing. There was a light breeze, and he sniffed the air. Something was nearby, something he had not sensed in a long time. Suddenly he was caught around the chest by a long, curling arm. A woody fragrance breathed into his ear. He recognized the scent of a dryad, a tree spirit from the woods.
    A blue lantern light burst out of the blackness, and a dozen tree spirits surrounded Inko. In this form, they were willowy maidens with polished gray-brown faces and sinewy arms. The somber dryads made him uneasy enough, but a deeper shiver ran down his back when he recognized the person holding the lantern.
He
was back, after all this time.
    Inko cringed as the young man stepped forward from the gloom, his hair tangled around his face and his clothes shining damp.
    “Inko,” he said, thrusting the lantern into the servant’s face, “strangers have entered Arcadia and are with Fox-Farratt in the palace. Bring them to me tomorrow.”
    Inko shook his head mournfully. He had not seen his master so happy in ages, and he knew it was because of the two visitors from the other world. Hugo would not want them to go to the faraway woods with the young man.
    Eyes flashed in the blue lantern light. “You know you have no choice. I will be waiting by the brambles at this time tomorrow.” The young man turned abruptly and melted away into the trees, followed by the dryads, rustling along the ground behind him.

I
’m
in
the painting
, Blaise thought, awestruck. He had no idea how long he’d been sleeping when he woke up on a wooden dock, sprawled at the chained feet of men waiting to board a galley ship. Through their legs, he recognized the oversized Sir Innes Blackhope standing at the top of his ship’s gangplank, one arm raised to greet the crowds on the dock. The name of the ship,
Speranza Nera
, was painted in curly gold letters on its hull.
    Excitement charged through Blaise as he got to his feet and took in the life-size buildings, people, and animals. It was like being on a film set of Fausto Corvo’s imagination, stuffed full of his backdrops and characters.
    Blaise couldn’t see back to the bench he had sat on in the Mariner’s Chamber or the labyrinth in the floor tiles. People there might see him in the painting, but he could not see out of it. He wondered whether the two