Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15 Alistair did not mind growing old. He did mind being outsmarted by an eleven-year-old nephew. Gold. Of course the boy was right. Gold was the "highest element" of alchemy. The alchemical symbol— the "elements united"— was the key to entrance. No doubt this came from the mind of Hideyoshi. Being a son of Thomas Cahill, he would also be a student of alchemy! Alistair cursed himself inwardly. He should have detected it from the beginning. He could have saved all this trouble, all this danger. All this unnecessary risking of his nephew's and niece's lives. This was bound to happen. He was bound to discover a Clue he had already

known. He tried to smile. To the Cahill children, this was all new. They had not been searching for a lifetime as he had. They were dancing now with the Kabras, doing dance moves they called hip- hop, which, when he attempted to join, made his hips hurt. He kept his eyes on the Kabra boy. Surely the Kabras knew this Clue also. The Lucians had been collecting Clues as long as the Ekats. Perhaps they were just better actors than he. "Brava!" Ian cried out, lifting Amy in the air. "I knew this cooperation between branches would pay off!" As he let her down, she allowed her face to brush gently against his. Alistair felt his blood go cold. The gambit with the Kabras had proved profitable. Without Ian's coin, they could not have found this cavern. But this was not the sort of alliance he'd imagined. "I— suggest we leave now," Alistair said. "Perhaps we can discuss what to do next over

dinner." "Not so fast," Ian said. He was walking away from Amy now, intent on the mirror. "Correct me if I'm wrong. It seems to me that whenever you find a clue, you seem to find a lead to the next one." "Right, Euro-boy," Dan said. "But don't tax your brain. I'm betting the next clue is not rock dust." Ian was eyeing the mirror now. "What do you suppose these letters mean?" Alistair joined him, shining a light on the triangular mirror frame. Along two sides ran a strange set of symbols.

"Greek to me," Natalie said. "Guys, I know those letters!" Dan exclaimed. "From the inscription we found on the sword in Venice. Remember, Uncle Alistair, when we were looking at those tattoos? I told you there were some letters missing. Here they are!" "I don't think this is any one tongue," Alistair said, running the letters through his knowledge of thirteen languages. "Perhaps some kind of secret message?" Natalie began brushing her hair in the mirror with a gold-handled brush. "Mirror, mirror on the

wall, who's the richest and smartest and hottest and—" "That's it, Natalie!" Dan said. Natalie blushed. "Thank you, I amaze myself sometimes…." "No! Words on a mirror… mirror writing!" Dan quickly pulled out a mechanical pencil and his paperback copy of Classic All-Time Movie Comedies. Ripping out a blank sheet in back, he turned the book sideways for support and began copying the letters onto the sheet. Then he held them in the mirror. It was still nonsense. Amy cocked her head. "The letters are symmetrical," she said. "The top of each one is a mirror reflection of the bottom. Maybe each letter is a mirrored half letter. So if you could see the half letter alone, you'd know what it was?" "That is the stupidest, most far-fetched thing I've ever heard," Dan said. Amy grabbed the paper and began erasing half of each latter:

Slowly, she began filling in each letter: "Ahstkael…" Amy said. "Isn't that a health food chain in Sweden?" "Our next clue is in Sweden?" Natalie said eagerly. "I do need a new fur." Dan tapped his chin. "Um, dudes, these are English? Shouldn't we be trying to make Japanese letters? Or Korean?" "Hideyoshi was the son of Thomas Cahill," Alistair said. "It stands to reason that English was spoken in the home. Hideyoshi would have been fluent. And because the East had not yet opened to the West, words using English letters would have been an unbreakable code." Dan was scribbling furiously again. He began arranging the letters crazily, in all different combinations.