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“What do you mean, password?”
“Qua redit nescitis,” said Mr. de Villiers. “The password of the Guardians for this twenty-fourth of September.”
“But it’s the sixth of April.”
Gideon turned his eyes to heaven. “We arrive on the twenty-fourth of September inside this house. If we don’t want the Guardians to chop off our heads, we have to know the password. Qua redit nescitis. Go on, repeat it.”
“Qua redit nescitis,” I said. I was never going to be able to remember that for longer than a second. There, now it was gone again. Maybe I could write it on a scrap of paper. “What does it mean?”
“Don’t tell me you’re not learning Latin at school!”
“Well, I’m not,” I said. I was taking French and German at school, which was more than enough.
“In full, Qua redit nescitis horam. “You know not the hour of your return,” said Dr. White.
“Rather a flowery translation!” said Mr. George. “One could also say, ‘You don’t know when—’”
“Gentlemen!” Mr. de Villiers tapped his wristwatch in a meaningful way. “We don’t have forever. Ready, Gideon?”
Gideon held his hand out to Dr. White, who raised one of the flaps and put Gideon’s forefinger in the opening behind it. There was a faint humming sound as if cogwheels had started moving inside the device. It was almost like a tune on a music box. One of the jewels, a huge diamond, suddenly lit up from inside and bathed Gideon’s face in clear white light. At the same moment, he disappeared.
“Wow, out of this world,” I whispered, impressed.
“Literally so,” said Mr. George. “Your turn now. Stand exactly here.”
Dr. White went on. “And remember what we’ve told you: do as Gideon says and, whatever happens, always keep close to him.” He took my hand and placed my forefinger in the opening under the flap. Something sharp pricked my fingertip, and I flinched. “Ow!”
Dr. White held my hand firmly down inside the flap. “Don’t move!”
This time a big red stone on the chronograph began shining. Red light dazzled me. The last thing I saw was my huge hat lying forgotten on the table. Then everything around me went dark.
A hand took hold of my shoulder.
Oh, no. What was that stupid password? Qua thingummy thingsitis. “Is that you, Gideon?” I whispered.
“Who else?” he whispered back, and let go of my shoulder. “Well done, you didn’t fall over!” A match flared, and next moment, the room was lit by a burning torch.
“Cool. Did you bring that with you?”
“No, it was here already. Hold it for a moment.”
When I took the torch, I was glad I wasn’t wearing that ridiculous hat. The huge nodding feathers on it would have caught fire in no time at all, and then I’d have been a pretty, blazing torch myself.
“Hush,” said Gideon, although I hadn’t so much as squeaked. He had unlocked the door. (Had he brought the key with him, or had it already been in the lock? I hadn’t been watching.) Then he peered cautiously out into the corridor. Everything was pitch-dark.
“This place smells kind of like something decaying,” I said.
“Nonsense. Come along!” Gideon closed the door behind us, took the torch from me again, and went down the dark corridor. I followed him.
“Aren’t you going to blindfold me again?” I asked, only half joking.
“It’s dark, you’d never remember the way,” replied Gideon. “One more reason to stick close to me. We have to be back down here in three hours’ time.”
One more reason for me to know my way around. How was I going to manage if anything happened to Gideon, or if we were separated? I didn’t think it was such a great idea not to let me know anything. But I bit back the words on the tip of my tongue. I didn’t want to pick an argument with Mr. High and Mighty just now.
It smelled musty, far worse than in our own time. What year had we traveled back to again?
The smell really was pungent, as if something was decomposing down here. For some reason, I suddenly thought of rats. In films, long, dark, torchlit corridors always had rats in them! Hideous black rats with their beady little eyes glowing in the dark. Or dead rats. Oh, yeah, and spiders. There were always spiders in this kind of place. I tried not to touch the walls and pushed the thought of fat spiders clinging to the hem of my dress and slowly crawling up my bare legs out of my mind.
