She pulled a lever, and the heavy door clacked open.
Carpeted stairs led up to another door. Grandma went up first. Seth and Kendra joined her in the attic.
This side of the attic was even larger than the playroom.
Grandma flipped a switch, and several lights dispelled the dimness. A long workbench dominated one side of the room, the wall above it covered with tools supported on pegs. Handsome wooden cabinets lined the other walls.
Various unusual objects littered the room-a birdcage, a phonograph, a battle-ax, a hanging scale, a mannequin, a globe the size of a beach ball. Trunks and boxes were arranged in rows on the floor, leaving just enough aisle space to access them. Heavy curtains concealed the windows.
Grandma motioned them over to the workbench, where they perched on stools. What's in all the boxes?
Seth asked.
Many things, most of them unsafe. This is where we guard our most prized weapons and talismans. Spell books, ingredients for potions, all the good stuff.
You can tell us more about Grandpa now? Kendra said.
Yes. You heard Nero say that Stan and Lena are being held in the Forgotten Chapel. Let me summarize some history to bring the ramifications into view.
Long ago, this land was possessed by a powerful demon named Bahumat. For centuries, he terrorized the natives who dwelt in the region. They learned to avoid certain areas, yet even with these precautions, nowhere in the vicinity was truly safe. The natives made whatever offerings the demon seemed to require, but still they lived in fear. When a group of Europeans offered to overthrow the demon in exchange for a claim to the lands it haunted, the incredulous local leaders consented.
Aided by mighty allies and potent magic, the Europeans successfully subdued and imprisoned the demon.
Some years later, they founded Fablehaven on the land they wrested from Bahumat.
Years passed. In the early 1800s, a community comprised chiefly of extended family had developed on this preserve. They built a number of dwellings around the original mansion. This was before the current house and barn were constructed. The old mansion still stands deep within this property, though most of the flimsier structures around it have been swallowed by time and the elements.
Although their homes are gone, they did construct one lasting structure-a church.
In 1826, thanks to human frailty and foolishness, Bahumat nearly escaped. It could have been a serious disaster, because none who remained on the preserve possessed the resources or knowledge to contend successfully with an entity of his power. Although the jailbreak was prevented, the experience proved too unnerving for most who lived here, and the majority departed.
The prison that held the demon had been damaged.
With outside help, Bahumat was moved to a new holding area in the basement of the church. Meetings there ceased a few months after that, and in the intervening years it has become known as the Forgotten Chapel.
So Bahumat is still there? Kendra said.
Believe me, we would know if Bahumat had been loosed. I doubt anyone in the world has the capacity to recapture that fiend if he were to get free. His kind have been absent for too long, imprisoned or destroyed. Those who knew how to defeat such a foe have passed on, with none to replace them. Which brings me to my greatest concern: that Muriel might try to release Bahumat.
Would she do something that stupid? Seth cried.
Muriel is a student of evil. She was originally imprisoned for tampering with such things. If she reaches the Forgotten Chapel first, which she may have already done, assuming her imps have apprised her of the situation, we will have to neutralize her in order to save your grandfather.
If we allow her enough time to release Bahumat, we will all need saving. That is why I must try to stop her immediately.
Not just you, Seth said.
Hugo and I will handle this. You kids have done enough.
What? Seth exclaimed. No way!
Retrieving your grandfather should not be too difficult.
But if the worst-case scenario transpires, and I fail, Fablehaven could fall. Bahumat never agreed to the treaty that protects this sanctuary. None of his kind would. He has a claim to this land and is a being of sufficient power to overthrow the treaty, plunging the preserve into endless darkness. Every day would become like those fearful festival nights, and this property would be forever uninhabitable for all but the denizens of shadow. Any mortal trapped here would fall prey to horrors too terrible to contemplate.
Could that really happen? Kendra asked quietly.
It would not be the first time, Grandma said, Preserves have fallen ever since they were instituted. The causes are myriad, usually stemming from human folly.
Some have been reclaimed. Others fell beyond redemption.
Currently there are at least thirty fallen preserves in the world. Perhaps most unnerving are the recent whispers about the Society of the Evening Star.
Maddox told us about them, Seth said.
Grandpa got a letter warning him to be on the lookout, Kendra added.
Traditionally, the fall of a preserve was an uncommon occurrence. Maybe one or two a century. About ten years ago, rumors began to circulate that the Society of the Evening Star was working mischief again. Around the same time, preserves began falling at an alarming rate. Four have fallen over the past five years.
Why would anybody do that? Kendra asked.
Many have sought the answer to that question, Grandma said. To gain riches? Power? We who safeguard the preserves are essentially conservationists. We don't want to see the magnificent magical creatures of the world go extinct. We try not to discriminate against creatures of shadow-we want them to survive as well. But we do compartmentalize them when necessary. Members of the Society of the Evening Star mask their true intentions with rhetoric, alleging that we wrongfully imprison creatures of darkness.
Do you? Seth asked.
The most violent and malevolent demons are imprisoned, yes, but that is for the safety of the world. In pursuit of endless carnage and unlawful dominion, they clashed anciently with good humans and creatures of light, and are paying a heavy price for losing. Many other sinister entities were admitted to preserves only on condition that they would agree to certain limitations-agreements they entered voluntarily. A common restriction is that they are not permitted to leave the preserve, so the Society considers many of these creatures also incarcerated. They argue that the covenants of the preserves create artificial rules that upset the natural order of things. They consider the majority of humanity expendable. Their premise is that chaos and bloodshed are preferable to just regulations. We disagree.
Do you think the Evening Star people are involved in kidnapping Grandpa? Kendra asked.
Grandma shrugged. Possibly. I hope not. If so, it was done with great subtlety. There are powerful limits to how any outsider can intrude on a preserve. And our preserve is more secret than most.