Vespers Rising (The 39 Clues #11)(45)

“Ready for what?” Amy and Dan both asked at the same time, bursting into the library.

Nellie and Fiske stood near his drawing table by the fireplace. Nellie’s fists rested on her h*ps in the attitude that meant she was ready to fight. Fiske stood tall and pale, dressed in his usual black sweater and black jeans. He turned, startled, when he saw them. For just a flash, Amy saw sadness in his gaze when it rested on them, and her fear began to coil inside her.

“Hey, kiddos,” Nellie said softly. “Something’s up.”

Amy tried to swallow. “What?”

“We wanted to wait as long as we could,” Fiske said.

“We wanted you to feel safe, for as long as you could,” Nellie added.

Which meant, Amy realized, that they weren’t safe. She lifted her chin. “You’d better tell us, then.”

“They’re Madrigals. It’s time they knew.”

The voice came from behind them.

Amy turned. They’d been so focused on Nellie and Fiske that they hadn’t noticed the guy in the corner. Was it because he was in shadow, or because he was so still?

“Scary Harley Dude!” Dan breathed.

Now that he wasn’t wearing his sunglasses, Amy could see his eyes, light gray and piercing.

“Amy and Dan, meet Erasmus,” Fiske said.

“You said he just wanted a latte,” Amy said with a quick glance at Fiske.

“I just needed to get a message to Fiske,” Erasmus said. “He’s hard to get hold of. Almost like he doesn’t want to be contacted.”

“I can’t imagine what gives you that idea,” Fiske said.

“I had to follow him and drop a secure cell phone in his lap.”

So that was what he’d been reaching for as they raced toward the car, Amy realized. A cell phone. Not a weapon.

Fiske cleared his throat again. “You might have guessed that Erasmus is a fellow Madrigal.”

“Tell them,” Erasmus said. He crossed to stand by Nellie. This served to make Fiske seem like he was on a stage, pressured to speak.

Fiske cleared his throat. “Ah … where to start?”

“From the beginning,” Nellie said. “With Madeleine.”

Nervously, Fiske bent to his drawing table and scooped some pencil shavings into his palm. He emptied them into the pocket of his jeans. Fiske did things like that all the time. He was a funny mixture of scatterbrained and incredibly focused.

“Madeleine inherited something from her mother,” he said. “When Gideon died, he had passed a ring to Olivia. She guarded it with her life. Madrigals have protected it ever since. Generation after generation.”

“Why? Is it so valuable?” Amy asked.

“It’s priceless,” Fiske said. “We know it was made in the ancient world. But that’s not why we protect it. It has a far greater value — we just don’t know what it is.”

“Grace had the ring,” Amy guessed.

“Grace was the last Madrigal to take possession of the ring,” Fiske agreed.

“Is it here?” Dan asked.

Fiske shook his head. “It’s in a bank vault.”

“So … what’s the problem?” Amy asked.

Because there definitely was a problem.

“Do you remember when, after you got through the gauntlet, we told you about another family, a group who hated the Cahills?” Fiske asked.

“This is not going to be good,” Dan muttered.

“They’re called the Vespers. They’re not blood related, exactly — although at least one of them is descended from Damien Vesper. He was a friend, then a bitter enemy, of Gideon Cahill. We don’t know much about the Vespers today — they’re a secret organization, and they recruit people. Scientists, captains of industry, military operatives, criminals … people who want power and don’t care how they get it.”

“They want the serum — we know that,” Erasmus said. “They also want the ring. They’ve been after it for centuries, ever since they figured out that the Madrigals were hiding it.”

“Do you know who they are?” Amy asked.

Erasmus shook his head. “That’s the problem — we’ve figured out a few possible Vespers, but we don’t have hard evidence, and we have no idea who’s leading them. We just get reports of activity from time to time that let us know they’re still hunting the ring. That activity recently has … stepped up. The ring must be moved.”

“So where is this ring?” Dan asked.

“In Switzerland,” Fiske said. “It’s in a safe-deposit box of a numbered account in a Swiss bank. I have the key to it. If something happens to me, the key would go to Amy.”

“To me?” Amy asked.

“Grace wanted both you and Dan to be there when I opened the box. She didn’t want this day to come so soon,” he said gently, looking at Amy. “But she knew you two were strong enough to handle it.”

Amy’s eyes stung with unshed tears. Every time she heard from Fiske how much they’d meant to Grace, she wanted to break down and blubber like a baby.

“Wait a second,” Dan said. “You guys just said that the Vespers are mobilizing. Do you think they’re watching us?”