Brave Warrior Read Online Free PDF Page A

handed Felix the papers.
    “You know what’s funny?” she said when they stepped outside. “One of the anagrams is
lame demon
.”
    “I found that one,” Maisie said.
    “Le diable boiteux,”
Avery said in perfectly accented French.
    “What’s funny about a lame demon?” Felix asked.
    “Well, not funny really, but curious. You know, it’s from that French book,” Avery said.
    “We don’t know,” Maisie said. Here was Avery, bragging as usual. Standing there in her glass house with her beautiful hair and some kind of classical music playing in another room and the waves crashing dramatically like she lived on a movie set.
    “
Paris Before Man
? By Pierre Boitard?” Avery was saying.
    Felix shook his head and shrugged helplessly.
    “It’s about time travel,” Avery said.
    Felix and Maisie looked at each other.
    In the background, like they really were in a movie, the music hit a crescendo.
    “
Lame demon
,” Felix said softly.
    “An anagram for Elm Medona,” Maisie said just as softly.
    Just then, the lights in Avery’s house blinked once. Twice. Then they went out, leaving the three of them standing in total darkness. Avery gasped. But Maisie reached out into the black, found her brother’s hand, and squeezed it. To her great relief and delight, Felix squeezed back.

    “Isn’t it weird that the lights went out
before
the storm arrived?” Maisie said as Charles drove them through the dark streets back to Elm Medona.
    Felix squinted out at the blackness. He could not find a single light anywhere. It looked as if all of Newport had lost electricity. Rain pelted the windshield, and the wind blew so hard that he could actually feel it tugging on the limousine. Already branches had been ripped from trees and were beingtossed around in the streets.
    “Lame demon,”
Maisie said, and rested her head back against the long seat.
    Slowly they drove along Bellevue Avenue, each mansion as dark as the next. They looked like museums, Felix thought as he stared out the window. He supposed in a way they were museums of the Gilded Age. Of a long-ago time. A shiver ran through him as he thought of all the people who had built them and held parties and danced in the fancy ballrooms. Not many of them were still lived in.
    The car turned up the long driveway to Elm Medona, which loomed ahead of them.
    Felix blinked.
    “Look,” he said, pointing out the window.
    Maisie leaned over to see what he was pointing at.
    Somewhere upstairs, one light shone. All around them, Newport was in darkness. In fact, Elm Medona was dark, too. Except one small light.
    “Is that in Samuel Dormitorio?” Maisie asked.
    In his mind’s eye, Felix pictured the layout of the second floor, imagining each room.
    “No,” he said.
    The limo was in the circular driveway now, itstires splashing through puddles as it moved toward the entrance.
    “Ariane’s Bedroom?” Maisie asked, craning her neck to better see.
    “No, that’s on the other side,” Felix said.
    They had stopped. Charles stepped out into the rain and opened the door for them to exit. He held an enormous black umbrella for them to step under, and Maisie and Felix huddled beneath it, running inside.
    The staff had lit giant pillar candles everywhere. They flickered and sent long shadows across the floors and walls.
    Slowly, Maisie and Felix made their way upstairs. The air smelled of wax and some spicy scent.
    “This must be what it was like here before they got electricity,” Maisie said, her voice hushed.
    Felix could only nod. He didn’t like this storm, and he didn’t like the way the shadows moved.
    And he didn’t like that now that they were upstairs, he couldn’t see a single light on.
    The door to the Aviatrix Room flew open and in the doorway stood their mother, her hair loose, her nightgown glowing eerily in the candlelight.
    “Were you two out in this?” she said, her eyes blazing.
    “When did you get home?” Felix asked.
    “It’s a genuine nor’easter