Haunted Castle on Hallow's Eve - Mary Pope Osborne [7]
“Looks like a nursery,” said Teddy.
The torchlight showed a kids’ room. The room had three small beds. Wooden toys were scattered across the floor. A long white curtain fluttered from an open window.
The clicking noise seemed to be coming from a dark corner.
“What is that?” whispered Annie. She started toward the noise.
Jack and Teddy followed her. Teddy held up his lantern. His light shone on a child-sized spinning wheel. It sat in the corner near a basket of wool and a tall, dusty mirror.
The spinning wheel was spinning thread. But no one was touching it. It was spinning all by itself.
“Look!” whispered Annie.
She pointed to a low table near the spinning wheel. On the table was a chessboard. Large wooden chess pieces sat on the squares of the board.
But some of the pieces weren’t just sitting!
As Jack, Annie, and Teddy watched, a horse piece slid slowly from one square to another. Then a queen piece did the same!
“Yikes!” said Annie.
“Ghosts!” said Teddy.
“Let’s get out of here!” said Jack.
They bolted across the room. Teddy threw open the door. The white bone was hanging in the air, right outside the door!
“AHHH!” they all screamed.
Teddy slammed the door shut. They huddled together, afraid to leave and afraid to stay. Jack’s heart was beating wildly. He couldn’t breathe.
“I—I thought you weren’t afraid of ghosts!” he said to Teddy, gasping.
“Yes, well, I believe I just discovered that I am!” said Teddy.
“What’ll we do?” said Jack.
“A rhyme—a rhyme,” said Teddy. He gave Annie his lantern. He threw out his arms and started a rhyme:
Spirits of the earth and air!
He looked at Jack and Annie. “Quick, what rhymes with air?”
“Bear!” said Jack.
Teddy shook his head. “I fear a bear might make things worse.”
Jack tried hard to think of a better word to rhyme with air.
“Wait a minute!” said Annie. “I get it now! I get it!” She grinned at Jack and Teddy.
Has she lost her mind? Jack wondered.
“Remember what old Maggie said?” asked Annie. Then she recited:
“Where is the girl
who spins wool into thread?”
Annie pointed at the spinning wheel in the corner. “There she is!” she said. “She’s spinning at that wheel.”
Annie recited more:
“Where are the boys
who play chess before bed?”
Annie pointed at the chess table. “There they are!” she said. “They’re probably her brothers! They’re playing chess!”
She recited more:
“Where is the hound
who waits to be fed?”
Annie threw open the door to the nursery.
The bone was still hanging in the air. Jack and Teddy jumped back in fear.
“Don’t be afraid!” said Annie. “It’s just a dog—a hound! He’s carrying a bone in his mouth. Don’t you see? The girl, the boys, the hound—they’re all here! They’re just invisible!”
Jack and Teddy were speechless. They kept staring at Annie as she got down on her knees and talked to the invisible dog.
“Hi, you,” she said in a soft voice. “Are you hungry?”
The bone dropped toward the floor. It flipped over, then rocked from side to side.
“See,” Annie said to Jack and Teddy. “Now he’s rolling on his back with his bone in his mouth. Poor thing.”
“Poor thing?” said Jack.
“We have to help him,” said Annie. She stood up. “We have to help them, too—the girl and her brothers.”
She hurried across the room. Jack and Teddy followed. Annie stopped at the small spinning wheel.
“We can’t see you,” said Annie, “but we’re not afraid of you. We want to help you. Can you hear me?”
The spinning wheel stopped spinning.
“She can hear us!” Annie said to Jack and Teddy. Annie turned back to the ghost girl. “What happened to you and your brothers and your dog and everyone else in the castle? How did you all become invisible?”
Jack felt a wave of cold air whoosh past him.
“I think she’s moving,” said Annie.
“Aye,” said Teddy, “to the looking glass. See?”
An invisible finger had begun to write something in the thick dust of the mirror. Four words slowly appeared:
“I can’t believe it!” said Teddy. “This must be the secret castle that guards the Diamond of Destiny!”
“What’s that?” said Jack.
“A magic diamond that belongs