She must have been able to communicate that information to the witch on this side.” Watch shook his head. “But I don’t see how we can use that fact to escape.”
“Were you awake when they brought you in here?” Adam asked.
“Yeah. The castle is bizarre. Besides having this dungeon, it’s filled with clocks.”
“You must feel right at home,” Adam remarked.
“There’s something funny about these clocks. They all run backward.”
“That’s interesting. We followed you here by walking toward the tombstone backward.”
Watch nodded. “That’s the key. That’s the answer to the riddle.”
“But when we tried to go back through the tombstone the same way, nothing happened.”
“You tried to go back? You were just going to leave me here?”
“We took one look around and figured you were as good as dead.”
Watch was understanding. “I would probably have done the same thing.” His head suddenly twisted to one side. “I think she’s coming.”
14
It was not one figure, but several, who appeared through a large iron door at the end of the dark corridor. The black knight led the way, the metal soles of his boots ringing on the hard floor with a sound all too familiar to Adam. Behind him stumbled three kids, girls, all chained together. The first was missing her mouth, the second her eyes, the third her ears. But where the parts had been removed was not gory and gross. Rather, each of the girls looked as if she had been sewn up like a doll. Where the parts had been removed there was just skin.
Behind them all strode the witch.
It was Ann Templeton—and it was not.
Her face was the same, but, as Watch had remarked, her hair was red instead of black. It flowed down her back, moving like liquid fire over her seamless black cape. Also, the way she held herself was different from that of the woman he had met earlier in the day. Ann Templeton had seemed easygoing, possessed of a wicked sense of humor, true, but not scary. A pale light shone from this woman’s face. Her eyes, although green like her interdimensional sister’s, glittered like emeralds. She certainly didn’t look like the mother type.
Across from them, the three deformed girls were thrown into a cramped cell and chained to the wall, where they huddled together, broken. The witch stopped in front of Watch and Adam’s cell, the black knight at her side. For a long time she stared at them both, her eyes finally coming to rest on Adam. A faint smile touched her lips, as cold as her eyes.
“Are you enjoying Spooksville?” she asked. “Seen all the sights?”
Adam had to remember to breathe. “It’s very nice, ma’am.”
Her smile widened. “I’m glad you approve. But tomorrow it might not look the same to you. It might look very black indeed.”
Adam realized she was talking about removing his eyes. “But, ma’am,” he
stuttered. “Remember how I saved your car from the shopping cart? You said to me, ‘Thank you, Adam. You have done your good deed for the day.’ ” He added weakly, “I thought you were my friend.”
She threw back her head and laughed. “You mistake me for someone else. But that mistake is understandable. All the mirrors in this castle are dusty. One reflection can look much like another.” She moved closer to the bars that separated them and put a hand on the metal. Adam saw that she wore a ruby ring on her right hand. The interior of the stone burned with a wickless flame. “I am not Ann Templeton, although I know her well. The skeletons you found in that house do not belong to your parents, although they might in the future. But none of that should concern you now. You are about to enter eternal darkness. You have only one chance to escape. That is to tell me where your friend Sally is hiding.”
Sally must have escaped, Adam realized. He was happy for that at least. He stood proudly as the witch waited for his response. The chain held him close to the wall.
“I don’t know where she is,” he said. “But even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you. Not if you threatened to boil me in a pot of water.”
“You don’t want to emphasize the pot of boiling water,” Watch muttered.
The witch smiled again, this time maybe a little sadly. “You have such beautiful eyes, Adam. They look so nice where they are.” Her voice hardened. “But I suppose they will look nice on one of my dolls.” She raised her hand and snapped her fingers. “Take them upstairs. We will not wait until tomorrow to operate.”
The black knight drew his sword and stepped forward.
15
Chained together, Adam and Watch were dragged up a long stone stairway to what appeared to be the living room of the castle—if castles had living rooms. It was a place of shadows, of candles that burned with red flames, and of paintings with eyes that moved. The dark ceiling, high above their heads, was all but invisible. While the witch watched, the knight chained them to an iron post in one corner of the room.
All around them, as Watch had said, were clocks that ran backward.
And there was something else. Something that appeared to be magical.
In the center of the room, on a silver pedestal, was an hourglass. Tall as a man, it was wrought of polished gold and burning jewels. The sand that poured through its narrow neck sparkled like diamond chips.
Not only that. The sand flowed from the bottom of the hourglass to the top.
The witch noticed his interest in the hourglass.
She smiled. “In your world there is a fable about a girl who walked through a mirror and ended up in a magical land. The same principle applies here. Only you walked into a tombstone and ended up in a place of black magic. But you might be surprised to know that there also exists an hourglass like this in your Spooksville. There the sand flows down and time moves forward. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Adam said. “And here the sand flows up and time moves backward.”
She nodded her approval. “But for you now it will stop. Without eyes, without day and night, time moves very slowly.” She took a step toward them. “This is your last chance, Adam. Tell me where Sally is and I will let you go.”
“Don’t you want to give me a last chance?” Watch asked.
“Shut your mouth,” the witch said. “While you still can. In a few minutes you