It was Abigail who put two and two together. “You’ve had it all along, haven’t you?”
Yaw gave her a smug smile. “Yes, and you were all too dumb to realize it. Especially this new Keymaster everyone has been talking about.”
She stared at Andy condescendingly. “You were so easily convinced that your leader, Rusty Bucketts, was a spy. How in the world could the great Ned Lostmore put his faith in such a stupid boy? You’ll never become a full Jungle Explorers’ Society member believing everything you’re told and turning on your friends.”
Andy felt his cheeks grow hot with shame.
Abigail spoke up in his defense, saying, “He’s new and was just trying to do what was right. You manipulated him, getting him to trust you as insurance so that you could stay close. Those ‘traps’ were put there by you, weren’t they?”
“Of course they were,” Yaw snapped. She gestured to the walls with open arms. “All of this was created by us, a trap to lure you here and get you out of the way. What better way than making you think you’d found the location of the Golden Paw? And perfectly safe, since I’ve had it all along.”
“B-but where did you find it? What about the temple and those legends that Cedric told us about?”
Yaw shrugged. “Lies. I found the Golden Paw in a place far from here, somewhere that’s not on any map.” She called over her shoulder, “Cedric, would you come here, please?”
Andy and Abigail watched as Cedric, wearing his mask, emerged from a nearby passage. It was getting hard for Andy to process all that he was seeing. It seemed as if the entire world had turned upside down.
“I saw you die,” Andy blurted.
Cedric held up a finger. “No, you didn’t. You saw me fall. Each of those pits you were so worried about is a chute, conveniently placed so that we could eliminate members of the group one by one. Taking you all on at once would be a waste of time and, er—well, dash it all, a waste of bodies. Everyone knows how well you fight as a team. I was there on your last mission, remember?”
“You’re the spy!” Andy exclaimed.
“Give the boy a gold star. He finally got one right,” Yaw said. She clapped her hands in mock appreciation.
Cedric slipped off his mask and revealed his face for the first time. Andy was shocked to see a mousy man with large front teeth and a pencil-thin mustache standing before him.
“I worked for your grandfather for a while, but the Potentate gave me a better offer. She’s set me up with all the medicines a poisoner could want. I can finally put my dark magic to good use.”
“But you g-gave me those crocodile teeth,” Andy stammered.
“Yes, by Jove, you’re correct,” Cedric said enthusiastically. Then his face fell. “But since you’re still here, you obviously didn’t use them as I instructed. They’d have killed you on the spot, dear chap.”
Andy was suddenly thankful that he’d never opened the jar and obeyed the prescription given to him by Cedric the day they’d met.
“So the others are alive, too? Betty and Dotty? Rusty?” Abigail asked.
“For now,” Yaw said. “Until I have no further use for them. It might take time, but thanks to dear old Cedric here, I have a machine that is capable of extracting information. Soon, all the secrets of the Jungle Explorers’ Society will belong to us.” She grinned. “It was so easy. Too easy, in fact. As Bartlemore, I got you moving, always irritating Bucketts to keep you from resting. As Yaw, I flew you to where I needed you to go. Didn’t you notice that Bartlemore and Yaw were never in the same place at the same time?”
“But what about at Trader Sam’s? Bartlemore’s plane?” Andy asked.
“I had an associate fly it over. Then I left Rusty to fly from Trader Sam’s alone while I changed back into Bartlemore. When I had an opportunity to get you alone, I seized it.”
She reached into the pocket of her flight jacket and removed something that Andy recognized immediately.
“My Zoomwriter!”
Yaw laughed. “I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw it sitting on the counter at Trader Sam’s. So careless to leave such a valuable item behind….”
Andy’s elation over seeing his pen evaporated. It was bad enough to have it nearly within reach and not be able to touch it, but to know that it was in possession of his enemies was torture!
“Wait a minute. You keep talking about Yaw as if she were one of your disguises,” Abigail said. Her eyes narrowed as she studied the woman in front of her. “Who are you really?”
“Smart girl. Yaw was simply an appearance I borrowed to gain the Society’s trust. I am the Potentate,” the woman said. “And who I really am isn’t for you to know. Unlike the pathetic society of which you are a part, we keep our secrets.”
She turned to Cedric. “You know what to do. Now that we have our prisoners, continue with the rest of the plan.”
Cedric nodded. “How many soldiers should I take with me?”
The Potentate paused to think, then replied, “I should say six at least. He’s bound to be well protected.”
Cedric bowed. He turned to leave and then hesitated. “After we have the information we need, shall I eliminate him?”
The Potentate gave him a mysterious, knowing smile. “Of course,” she purred.
Cedric grinned in a way that made Andy feel very uncomfortable. What was he planning? Whatever it was, Andy could tell that something terrible was in store for them.
As Cedric strode from the chamber, the Potentate called after him.
“Cedric!”
“Yes, ma’am?”
Andy watched as she removed from her neck a slim golden chain with a claw-shaped pendant hanging from it. The minute she did, her form shimmered, turning from Yaw Ripcord’s into that of a tall raven-haired woman wearing a silken mask.
It was the first time that Andy had seen the Golden Paw up close. It seemed to pulse with invisible
