The Hunt of the Grimalkin (Erresuma Book 1) by Dani Swanson (read aloud books txt) 📕

Fig went to the bed and made himself comfortable. It seemed his human was going to be looking around this room for a while, and he had already grown bored with the whole situation. Thea then found another case with thimbles inside of it. Each had a small tag with it, just like the tea cups. She walked to the stain glass window, sitting down on the built-in bench. The light in the room came from hanging lanterns that twinkled. As she looked closer to the dancing light, she realized that they were not lights at all but fairies inside of the lanterns flying in circles trying to get out.

“Oh my!” Thea exclaimed as she started to stand on the bench. She was just a hair too short to reach them all. “I’ll get all of you down,” she called up to the fairies. She went back into the hallway to a closet, and found a broom. She returned to Sorgin’s room and used the broom handle to gently take each lantern down, one by one. She started to make a row of them across the floor. Each fairy was from a different kingdom – their wings were different shapes and colors and the clothes that they wore had different birds and flowers embellished on them. Thea couldn’t make out the words that they were saying, but there was a high pitched buzz across the room as the little fairies banged their fists on the sides of the lanterns. All together there were twenty-three fairies in little metal lanterns sitting on the floor; each with a blue hue coming off the seals of the opening. “I’m sorry little friends but I don’t know how to get you out yet. There are more people here who are working on it.”

She continued around the perimeter of the room until she got to the corner by the bed. There was a large cherry wood cabinet with the inlay of a tree in white birch. “She does have good taste,” Thea said as she ran her fingers over the wood. She opened the doors and found what she was looking for: keys. Hundreds of little keys hung on hooks by different colored ribbons. Unfortunately, this was the one place where Sorgin had not labeled her collection. Thea went to the bed and took removed a pillow case, and filled it full of keys. She took the heavy bag and tossed it over her shoulder with a wince of pain, and was about to leave the room when the clamoring of the little fairies started up again. “I’ll be back,” she promised, but they weren’t satisfied with that response. They got louder and started to pound harder on their lanterns. “Alright, alright! Everyone calm down.” Thea said as she picked up the broom stick and ran the handle through the tops of the lanterns. She got twenty onto the broom handle and hooked the rest onto her clothing and then hooked the pillowcase over her shoulder as she clumsily made her way out the door, with Fig in tow.

Down the six flights of stairs she clomped, trying to balance the little lanterns without stepping on Fig. She made it to the main level and went into the sitting room to see Sorgin’s head asleep in its case. She gently put the lanterns down on the floor in a row and then noisily dropped the bag of keys on the ground. The racket woke Sorgin from her slumber.

Sorgin’s eyes opened wide in surprise as she started to scream at Thea. “DON’T TOUCH MY COLLECTION! THAT IS NOT YOURS! LEAVE MY THINGS ALONE!” The head was yelling as loud as she could.

“I think I found what you were hiding,” Thea said smugly to the head. She dumped the case out on the floor. All the keys clamored to the ground.

Sorgin’s screams alerted the others; Charles and Agatha came into the room. Thea looked up at the two, but the smile left her face when she saw Agatha wobble in with a cane. She couldn’t help but roll her eyes whenever she saw her.

“Why is she screaming now?” Charles asked. He was covered in dirt and was cleaning his hands off with a rag.

“Look what I found,” Thea scooped up a handful of keys and let them fall back into the pile.

Agatha’s face lit up. “Did you find Robin?!” she exclaimed.

“No, I found hundreds of keys to open doors with,” Thea coldly stated. Sorgin’s head was sobbing in its case. “How do I lift the curse you miserable little head?!” Thea yelled over the sobs.

“I think I found something,” Agatha chimed in. She wobbled over to Thea and handed her a vile of sky blue liquid. “I used up your banshee tears with the unicorn mane. I don’t have enough for everyone though.” Agatha struggled to make eye contact with Thea. She looked at the bottle and then looked at the horror that was on Sorgin’s face. She put a few drops onto the band strapped to Charles’ wrist. It fizzed and popped, then turned into a sticky white goo, as it melted off his arm. There was a blue flash of light and it liquefied on the floor.

Charles rubbed his wrists and smiled at the girls. “You saved me!” he hugged first Agatha and then Thea. “Thank you!” He then turned his attention over to the head in the case. Thea witnessed Sorgin looking terrified for the first time since she met her. “You see now you wicked little creature! You can’t control me anymore! I am going to get my brother out of here and then I’m going to make it so you never see the light of day again!”

Charles started to pick up handfuls of keys and was about to head down the hallway when there was a loud ruckus coming from the