The Maze of Bones (The 39 Clues #1)(10)

"An inside tip?" Dan asked hopefully.

"A warning, young master Dan. You see, all Cahills -- if they know themselves to be Cahills -- belong to one of four major branches."

Amy stood up straight. "I remember this! Grace told me once."

Dan frowned. "When did she tell you that?"

"In the library one afternoon. We were talking."

"She didn't tell me!"

"Maybe you weren't listening! There are four branches. The Ekaterina, the Janus, the ... uh, Tomas, and the Lucian."

"Which are we?" Dan asked.

"I don't know." Amy looked at Mr. McIntyre for help. "She just mentioned the names. She wouldn't tell me what we are."

"I'm afraid I can't help you there," Mr. McIntyre said, but Dan could tell from his tone that he was keeping something back. "However, children, there is another ... ah, interested party you should know about. Not one of the four Cahill branches, but a group that may make your quest more difficult."

"Ninjas?" Dan asked excitedly.

"Nothing quite that safe," Mr. McIntyre said. "I can tell you very little about them. I confess I know only the name and a few unsettling stories. But you must beware of them. This was your grandmother's last warning, which she made me promise to tell you if you accepted the challenge:

Beware the Madrigals."

A chill went down Dan's back. He wasn't sure why. The name Madrigals just sounded evil. "But, Mr. McIntyre, who -- "

"My boy," the old man said, "I can tell you no more. I've stretched the rules of the competition saying as much as I have. Just promise me you will trust no one. Please. For your own safety."

"But we don't even know where to start!" Amy protested. "Everyone else just rushed off like they knew what to do. We need answers!"

Mr. McIntyre stood. He closed his leather folder. "I must get back to my office. But, my dear, perhaps your way of finding out is not the same as the other teams'. What do you normally do when you need answers?"

"I read a book." Amy gasped. "The library! Grace's library!"

She raced out of the Great Hall. Usually, Dan did not run with excitement when his sister suggested visiting a library. This time, he did.

The library was next to Grace's bedroom -- a big sunken parlor lined with bookshelves.

Dan thought it was creepy being back here with just Amy, especially since Grace had died next door in her big four-poster bed. He expected the rooms to be all draped in black, with sheets over the furniture like you saw in movies, but the library was bright and airy and cheerful, just like it had always been.

That didn't seem right to Dan. With Grace gone, the mansion should be dark and dreary -- kind of the way he felt. He stared at the leather chair by the window and remembered one time he'd been sitting there, playing with a cool stone dagger he'd busted out of a locked display case. Grace had come up so quietly he didn't notice her until she was standing right over him. Instead of getting mad, she'd knelt next to him.

That dagger is from Tenochtitlán, she'd said.

Aztec warriors used to carry these for ritual sacrifice. They would cut off the parts of their enemies that they believed held their fighting spirit.

She'd showed him how sharp the blade was, and then she left him alone. She hadn't told him to be careful. She hadn't gotten angry because he'd busted into her cabinet.

She'd acted like his curiosity was totally normal -- even admirable.

No adult had ever understood Dan that well. Thinking about it now, Dan felt like somebody had cut away part of his spirit.

Amy started searching the library books. Dan tried to help, but he had no idea what he was looking for and quickly became bored. He spun the old globe with brown seas and weird-colored continents, wondering if it would make a good bowling ball. Then he noticed something he'd never seen before under the Pacific Ocean -- a signature.

Grace Cahill, 1964.

"Why did Grace autograph the world?" he asked. Amy glanced over. "She was a cartographer. A map-maker and an explorer. She made that globe herself."

"How did you know that?"

Amy rolled her eyes. "Because I listened to her stories."

"Huh." That idea had never occurred to Dan. "So where'd she explore?"

A man's voice said, "Everywhere."

Alistair Oh was leaning on his cane in the doorway, smiling at them. "Your grandmother explored every continent, Dan. By the time she was twenty-five, she could speak six languages fluently, handle a spear or boomerang or rifle with equal skill, and navigate almost every major city in the world. She knew my hometown of Seoul better than I did. Then, for reasons unknown, she came back to Massachusetts to settle down. A woman of mystery -- that was Grace."

Dan wanted to hear more about Grace's boomerang skills. That sounded sweet! But Amy stepped away from the bookcase. Her face was bright red. "A-Alistair. Uh ... what do you want?"

"Oh, don't let me stop you. I won't interfere."

"Um, but... there's nothing here," Amy mumbled. "I was hoping for ... I don't know.

Something I hadn't seen before, but I've read most of these. There really aren't that many books. And there's nothing about Richards-."