Chapter 3

Chapter three A little while later, Lyra and Sienna came bounding up the stairs with Ivy following more slowly. "I won!" Sienna announced gleefully. "Ivy couldn't get the beanbag through the hoop and Lyra and Misty knocked a pole over." Ivy flopped down on her bed. "I'm exhausted!" "Is your foot OK?" Lyra asked Evie. "You looked like you were limping earlier." Evie could hardly contain her excitement. "It's fine now. But I've got something to tell you all! I saw Dr Briar earlier and—" "Dr Briar!" Lyra broke in. "Why's she back here? I know she's Sam's aunt but there's something about her that I don't trust." "I know what you mean," Sienna added. "Remember when we showed her the first piece of the map and she looked like she wasn't going to give it back?" "Yes, and—" "Shush, you two!" interrupted Ivy. "Evie said she's got something to tell us. Go on, Evie." Evie gave Ivy a grateful look. It was sometimes hard to get a word in edgeways when Sienna and Lyra got talking. She took a breath. "Dr Briar is here to document the paintings and stuff. I asked her if she knew what a folly was and she told me it's a building like a tower, often built in the grounds of a big house, that's just for fun." "So there could be a folly here in the academy grounds?" said Lyra, her green eyes lighting up. Evie nodded. "Or the riddle could mean elsewhere on the island." "A folly guarded by ghosts," breathed Sienna. They all looked at each other in excitement. "This might be what we need to solve the riddle!" said Lyra. "You're a star, Evie!"

过了一会儿，莱拉和西耶娜蹦蹦跳跳地上楼来，艾薇跟在后面。 “我赢了!”西耶娜高兴地宣布。 “艾薇没能把豆袋穿过铁环，莱拉和米斯蒂把一根杆子撞倒了。” 艾薇扑通一声倒在床上。 “累死了!”“你的脚还好吗？”莱拉问伊维。 “你刚才看起来一瘸一拐的。” 伊薇几乎无法抑制她的兴奋。 “现在好了。但我有件事要告诉你们！我之前见过布瑞尔医生，而且——”“布瑞尔医生！”莱拉插嘴说。 “她为什么回来了？”我知道她是萨姆的姨妈，但她身上有些东西我不太相信。” “我明白你的意思，”西耶娜补充说。 “还记得我们给她看第一张地图的时候，她一副不打算还给我的样子吗？”“是啊，还有——”“嘘，你们两个！”艾薇插嘴说。 “艾薇说她有事要告诉我们。 继续，伊薇。”艾薇感激地看了艾薇一眼。 西耶娜和莱拉谈话时，有时很难插嘴。 她深吸了一口气。“布瑞尔博士是来记录这些画作的。 我问她知不知道傻楼是什么意思，她告诉我傻楼是一种像塔一样的建筑，通常建在大房子的院子里，只是为了好玩。” “这么说，学院的场地里可能发生了一件蠢事？”莱拉说，她的绿眼睛放光了。 艾维-点了点头。“或者这个谜语指的是岛上的其他地方。” “一个有鬼魂守护的愚蠢的地方。”西耶娜轻声说。 他们都兴奋地面面相觑。 “这可能就是我们解开谜语所需要的东西！”莱拉说。 “你是个明星，伊维！”

"Yes, you're absolutely a-mazing!" declared Sienna. Evie glowed in delight at the praise. Sienna grabbed Lyra's shoulder. "We're going to find the treasure map," she chanted. "We're going to find the treasure!" Lyra sang back. The door, which the girls had left ajar, opened and Nawaz, Archie and Reuben from Topaz dorm looked in. "What are you lot shouting about?" asked Nawaz. "Nothing!" Lyra said hastily. Sam appeared behind the other boys. "What's going on?" "The girls have gone loopy," said Reuben. "They were shouting about finding treasure." Sam's face stiffened. "Treasure?" "Lyra and Sienna were just messing around," said Ivy hastily. "Hey, we were hoping to catch you," said Sienna. "We wanted to challenge you to a crossnet match tomorrow." Evie smiled to herself– Sienna was so quick at making things up. It was the first she'd heard about a crossnet match. "Ruby versus Topaz," added Lyra.

“是的，你真是太棒了！”西耶娜说。 伊薇听到这赞扬高兴得容光焕发。 西耶娜抓住莱拉的肩膀。 “我们要找到藏宝图，”她高呼。 “我们要找到宝藏！”莱拉唱道。 女孩们半开着的门开了，托帕兹宿舍的纳瓦兹、阿奇和鲁本往里看。 “你们这么多人在喊什么？”纳瓦兹问。 “没什么!”莱拉急忙说。 萨姆出现在其他男孩的后面。 “发生什么事了？”“女孩们都疯了，”鲁本说。 “他们喊着要找到宝藏。” 萨姆的脸僵住了。“宝藏?”“莱拉和西耶娜只是在闹着玩。”艾薇急忙说。 “嘿，我们正希望能赶上你呢，”西耶娜说。 “我们想明天向你挑战一场交叉网比赛。” 伊薇对自己笑了笑——西耶娜编造故事的速度是如此之快。 这是她第一次听说交叉网比赛。 “红宝石对黄玉。”莱拉补充道。

"Cool," said Archie. They discussed the details and agreed to meet at ten the next morning at the crossnet pitch. But as the boys left, Evie saw Sam give the girls an intent look very much like the look Dr Briar had given her in the corridor earlier. "Whoops, that was close!" whispered Sienna, as Lyra shut the door. Lyra pulled a face. "I can't believe we were stupid enough to shout about treasure. Did you see the way Sam was looking at us as he left? I hope he doesn't suspect anything. Remember when someone ransacked our dorm just after we found the first piece? We thought it was a prank but what if Dr Briar was lying when she said that the map wasn't valuable? What if she or Sam searched our dorm trying to find it?" She patted her pockets. "From now on these are never leaving my sight– we're not letting anyone else find the treasure!" Evie couldn't sleep that night for thinking about the crossnet match. Crossnet was played with teams of two or four, and the idea was to ride up and down the pitch throwing the ball using sticks with nets on the end; goals were scored when the ball was put through the opposing team's hoop. Evie always ended up dropping the ball. It was fine playing with her friends, who never seemed to care, but it would be really embarrassing to mess up in front of Topaz dorm. She got up at sunrise and went to the window. She could see right across the grounds. Beyond Lake Sparkle were the meadows, and past them were the woods where they'd found the cave that had led them to the underground river. On the other side of the woods was a smaller copse. One tree in the middle looked taller than the rest. Evie blinked. Was it a tree, or could it be the top of a tower? It was hard to tell. She glanced round at her sleeping friends. Should she mention it to them? But if she did, Lyra would want to go there, and if Evie was wrong and it was just a tall tree, she'd feel really stupid. Maybe I should do some research first, she thought. I could go to the library instead of playing crossnet.

“酷，"阿尔奇说。他们讨论了细节，并同意第二天早上10点在十字球场见面。 但当男孩们离开时，伊维看到山姆专心地看了女孩们一眼，就像布瑞尔医生早些时候在走廊里看她的那样。 “哎呀，好险啊！”莱拉关上门时，西耶娜小声说。 莱拉做了个鬼脸。“我真不敢相信我们居然蠢到喊什么宝藏。 你看到山姆离开时看我们的眼神了吗？ 我希望他不会起疑心。 还记得我们刚找到第一块碎片就有人洗劫了我们的宿舍吗？ 我们以为这是恶作剧，但如果布瑞尔博士说地图没有价值是在撒谎呢？ 如果她或萨姆搜遍了我们的宿舍，想找到它怎么办？”她拍了拍自己的口袋。 “从现在起，这些东西永远不能离开我的视线——我们不能让任何人找到宝藏！”那天晚上，伊薇因为想着网际比赛而无法入睡。 Crossnet是一种两人或四人一组的游戏，玩法是骑着车在球场上来回跑，用末端带网的棍子扔球；当球穿过对方的篮筐时，就得分了。 艾维最后总是把事情搞砸。 和她的朋友们一起玩很好，他们似乎从来都不在乎，但在托帕兹宿舍前搞砸了真的很尴尬。 她在日出时起床，走到窗前。 她可以看到对面的场地。 斯巴克湖那边是草地，再过去就是树林，他们在那里找到了通向地下河的洞穴。 在树林的另一边是一片小灌木林。 中间的一棵树看起来比其他的树都要高。 艾维眨了眨眼睛。它是一棵树，还是一座塔顶？ 这很难说。她回头看了看正在睡觉的朋友们。 她应该跟他们提一下吗？ 但如果她知道了，莱拉就会想去那里，如果艾维错了，那只是一棵高大的树，她会觉得自己很愚蠢。 也许我应该先做些调查，她想。 我可以去图书馆而不是玩交叉网。

By the time the rest of Ruby dorm woke up Evie had come to a decision. "I'm not going to play in the crossnet match," she told them. "I'm going to the library instead to see if I can find out if there are any follies in the school grounds." "But if you don't play, we won't be able to have teams of four," said Sienna. "You can play in pairs and add the points up over several rounds," Evie pointed out. "Or play in teams of three. That way one person from each dorm can act as a referee." Lyra frowned. "This isn't because of what happened in the obstacle race yesterday, is it?" Evie rubbed her nose. "It is, kind of." And it'll make Sunshine happier if I don't play and embarrass her, she added to herself. Ivy put her arm though Evie's. "We'd rather lose and have you as part of the team than win without you." "Absolutely," said Lyra. Evie saw Sienna hesitate, but then she nodded. "Of course we'd rather you played," she said. Evie knew Sienna was being kind– she hated losing any competition– but she was grateful Sienna cared about her feelings enough to lie. "I really do want to do some research. You play without me." Although Lyra and Ivy continued trying to change her mind, Evie stood her ground. When the others went to get their unicorns ready, she went with them to explain to Sunshine that she wasn't joining in with the match. "Good. I think it's for the best," Sunshine said, looking relieved. Evie felt a flicker of unhappiness. A small part of her had hoped that Sunshine would say that it didn't matter if she messed up, and reassure her that her friends meant it when they said they would rather she joined in. She sighed. "I guess so." "You do want to miss the match, don't you, Evie?" said Sunshine, giving her a concerned look. "Yes… No… I mean, I know it's for the best," said Evie. She hurried to the door and saw that Sunshine was watching her rather anxiously. "I'll get you some sky berries and then I'm going to the library." Evie was coming back from the storeroom with a bucket of sky berries

当鲁比宿舍的其他人醒来时，伊薇已经做出了决定。 “我不打算参加交叉网比赛，”她告诉他们。 “我要去图书馆，看看能不能发现学校操场上有没有什么蠢事。” “但如果你不上场，我们就不能组建四人队，”西耶纳说。 Evie指出：“你可以两人一组玩，在几轮游戏中把分数加起来。 “或者三人一组。 这样每个宿舍就有一个人来做裁判。” 莱拉皱起了眉头。“这不会是因为昨天障碍赛上发生的事吧？”伊薇揉了揉鼻子。 “有点像。”“如果我不玩，不让Sunshine难堪，她会更开心的，”她自言自语道。 艾薇把手伸进艾薇的手臂。 “我们宁愿输掉比赛，但有你在，也不愿在没有你的情况下获胜。” “当然。”莱拉说。伊维看到西耶娜犹豫了一下，但她还是点了点头。 “我们当然希望你来玩，”她说。 伊维知道西耶娜是善良的——她讨厌失去任何竞争对手——但她很感激西耶娜如此关心她的感受，以至于愿意撒谎。 “我真的想做一些研究。 你自己玩吧。”虽然莱拉和艾薇一直试图改变她的想法，但艾薇坚持自己的立场。 当其他人去准备他们的独角兽时，她和他们一起去向阳光解释她不参加比赛。 “很好。我想这是最好的结果。”Sunshine说，看起来松了一口气。 伊薇感到一阵不快。 她心里有一小部分希望阳光会告诉她，如果她搞砸了也没关系，并向她保证，她的朋友们说他们宁愿她加入他们的行列是认真的。 她叹了口气。“我想是的。”“你想错过比赛，是吗，伊维？”阳光说，关切地看了她一眼。 “是的……不……我的意思是，我知道这是最好的，”伊维说。 她急忙跑到门口，发现阳光正焦急地看着她。 “我给你买些天空莓，然后我要去图书馆。” 艾薇拿着一桶野莓从储藏室回来

–the unicorns' favourite food– when there was a loud bang from Sunshine's stable. Evie ran to the door. Sunshine stood in the entrance. She was covered in bits of hay. It hung from her nose like a droopy moustache and stuck to her legs, making her look like a shaggy pony. A giggle rose in Evie's throat but Sunshine looked so shocked that she bit it back. "What's going on?" "Um… I stamped my hoof and my-my hay net burst," stammered Sunshine. Evie squeezed past her, her eyes widening as she took in the mess. "Are you sure you're OK? How did it happen?" "It must have been the way you tied it up. It fell down and exploded," said Sunshine. Evie felt shame rush through her. She had filled it very full but she

——独角兽最喜欢的食物——这时，阳光的马厩里传来一声巨响。 艾薇跑到门口。阳光站在入口处。 她身上盖满了干草。 它像下垂的小胡子一样挂在她的鼻子上，粘在她的腿上，使她看起来像一匹毛茸茸的小马。 伊维的喉咙里发出咯咯的笑声，但阳光看起来太震惊了，她把笑声咬了回去。 “发生什么事了？”“嗯……我踩了我的脚，我的——我的干草网破裂了，”阳光结结巴巴地说。 艾维从她身边挤过去，看着这堆乱七八糟的东西，眼睛睁得大大的。 “你确定你没事吗？”这是怎么发生的？”“一定是你系绳子的方式不对。 它掉下来爆炸了，”阳光说。 伊薇感到一阵羞愧。 她已经把它装满了，但是她