The 39 Clues: Cahill Files: Silent Night by Riley Clifford Page B

quick.” She took Rupert’s hand and practically dragged him into the barn. “I believe the major is dying. It’s quite terrible.”
    “I am not
dying
,” said the major. He was leaning against a mound of hay, and his face was pale and clammy. His left sleeve was covered in blood, and so was most of the rest of him. It made Rupert’s stomach turn. “It’s nothing but a flesh wound. Don’t hover around me; back off, back off. Marie, I said don’t hover!” He looked up at Rupert. “And what you did, you idiot, was one of the stupidest things that I’ve ever seen a soldier do. Thank you.”
    Rupert didn’t know what to say to that. He felt almost bashful. So instead, he said, “This looks awful.”
    “That’s because you’re green, Davenport. Now man up. Pull yourself together. Get a bit of water on the thing and half the damage will go away,” growled the major. Rupert did as he was told, and Marie paced back and forth.
    “I’m not going to have to, erm, sew this shut, am I?” said Rupert, wrinkling his nose at the thought.
    “I should hope not!” said the major, who tried to shoot to his feet but failed with a groan. “Don’t you dare!” Rupert almost smiled. He couldn’t be so close to dying if he were that afraid of a needle.
    “Did someone say something about sewing?” said Marie, coming over with a threaded needle. Rupert lifted an eyebrow. “One should never leave home without a needle and thread.”
    The major went from pale to green. “No. No!” He threw his good arm in front of his face and turned away. Marie and Rupert laughed, until Marie turned to Rupert.
    “It’s just a flesh wound!” Rupert said in a mock deep voice.
    “I don’t sound like that!” said the major.
    “
Absolument
you do!”
    The major was trying very hard not to laugh, but the corners of his mouth were twitching uncontrollably and it didn’t take long to break him. They laughed until they were gasping, and until the gravity of the situation settled back down on them.
    And then they were all quiet.
    “So,” said the major. “What happens next?”
    “They saw me as I fell,” said Marie. “And they saw you, Major, because they shot at you.”
    “Yes, Marie. That’s very astute. Davenport?” said the major. “What luck did you have at the river?”
    Rupert started to talk, but his mouth went completely dry. The Madrigal. Should he tell them? What good or ill would that cause?
    “Not much,” said Rupert. “We’d need tools and things to get through. But even so, we can’t go across the river. They’ll be on the lookout for us now.”
    They all fell quiet again. Rupert didn’t want to say anything about the Madrigal. Maybe he should, but if they were going to go a different way, perhaps it wouldn’t matter? Mostly dry and somewhat fed, the group settled down to their hay as the clock struck two.
    “Marie, what does
‘Gehe hin und sündige hinfort nicht mehr’
mean?” Rupert asked.
    “Go,” she said. “Go, and sin no more.
Pourquoi?
”
    Rupert swallowed the dry lump in his mouth.
    “No reason,” he said.

    In the middle of the night, Rupert awoke in the hay, covered in a clammy, cold sweat. He scrambled to his feet, breathing heavily and spinning around. He was dizzy and dazed and he knew, he
knew
, that someone had just been there. He could feel the sudden absence, like a shadow hanging in the air. He looked at the hay, but he was rubbish at tracking and so he had no idea if there were any footprints there. The door was still shut and the lantern was still where they had left it, turned down to a low haze in the center of the barn floor. But someone
had
been there, Rupert could feel it.
    Or maybe he had dreamed it.
    His dream. Black shadows everywhere — over the forest, the trenches, the barn. They had crept up over the horizon and sucked up everything, leaving the entire countryside in darkness. Madrigals.
    It had been a dream. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that they had