Leonardo da Vinci: Renaissance Master Read Free Page B

flags. And so it has remained ever since.”
    Great-Uncle Thorne got that faraway look that often crossed over him.
    And Felix took that opportunity to put the seal in his pocket. He would write Lily Goldberg a letter, he decided, and melt red wax onto the back of the envelope, and press the
giglio
into it. He could picture her all the way in Cleveland puzzling over the symbol. When she Googled it, she’d see that it was a lily! What a perfect plan, Felix decided.
    But his delight faded when his very next thought was the Ziff twins’ disappearance.
    â€œUncle Thorne?” Felix said softly.
    Great-Uncle Thorne blinked several times, as if he were blinking away a memory.
    â€œWhat about Rayne and Hadley?”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œThe Ziff twins,” Felix reminded him.
    â€œVery troubling,” Great-Uncle Thorne said. “Bothersome. Potentially catastrophic.”
    â€œCatastrophic?” Felix repeated with a quiver in his voice. He thought about how Hadley’s curly black hair got even curlier in the damp Newport sea air, and how a glimpse of Rayne’s hot-pink braces always made him smile, and how the Ziff twins were the only friends he and Maisie actually shared, and the next thing he knew, Felix burst into tears.
    Great-Uncle Thorne looked at Felix, horrified.
    â€œNow, now,” he said awkwardly. “We’ll figure out how to get them back.”
    â€œBut how can we possibly?” Felix blurted, which made him cry harder.
    â€œWe’ll . . . why . . . You and Maisie can go back to the Congo and
get
them!” Great-Uncle Thorne banged his walking stick for emphasis, and grinned triumphantly.
    But the last thing Felix wanted to do was go back to the Congo. And besides, Hadley and Rayne had the object.
    â€œThis is hopeless,” Felix groaned.
    â€œNothing is hopeless,” Great-Uncle Thorne said unconvincingly.
    Felix’s crying slowed. He hiccupped and wiped the tears off his face.
    â€œ
This
is,” he said.
    But as soon as he said it, Felix felt the slightest hint of a cool breeze. He could tell Great-Uncle Thorne felt it, too, by the way his eyebrows lifted and his nose twitched.
    Felix smelled a hint of something sweet, and heard a faint sound from somewhere far, far away.
    And then—just like that!—Hadley and Rayne dropped into The Treasure Chest.
    Except for his father showing up at Elm Medona this afternoon, Felix had never been so happy to see someone.
    â€œYou’re alive!” he shouted as he ran over to them and spontaneously pulled them both into a hug.
    â€œNo thanks to you,” Rayne said, wriggling away from him.
    â€œWe were going to get eaten by lions,” Felix tried to explain.
    But Rayne held up her hand to stop him. “Don’t bother,” she said. “You have no idea what we’ve been through. Lions. Hah!”
    â€œCurious,” Great-Uncle Thorne said thoughtfully. “Since we’ve never had travelers left behind, I can’t explain what’s happened here or why. But hallelujah! You’re back!”
    Felix turned to Hadley, who was still standing in a half-hug with him. Her hair looked like corkscrew pasta standing up all around her head.
    â€œI’m sorry,” he said to her. “First Maisie got kidnapped by a silverback gorilla, and then I practically got bitten by a huge poisonous snake, and then—”
    â€œThe lions,” Hadley finished for him. “I know. I saw you.”
    â€œYou were
there
?”
    Hadley nodded. “I was on the other side of that pride—”
    â€œâ€”and I was being held hostage by natives!” Rayne said indignantly. “They had never seen hair like mine before and they wanted it. All of it.” She smoothed her hair nervously as she talked. “The whole village came to stare at me and touch my hair, and then the chief started making preparations to cut it all off—”
    â€œAnd