“What we need is time.” Liesl strained against the handcuffs, then quickly gave up as the metal cut into her wrists. But perhaps if she could somehow get her legs free . . . “We need time to plan. Time to think.”
“We need a distraction,” Will said, remembering how he and the other orphans had sometimes set firecrackers off just outside the warden’s window, whenever the warden was supposed to be paddling one of the boys for misbehavior, so the warden would be prevented from delivering the full forty swings.
“A distraction!” Liesl seized on the idea. “Po, do you think you might . . . ?”
But Po had disappeared, taking Bundle with it.
“Great.” Will rolled his eyes. “Very brave.”
“I’m sure Po will be back,” Liesl said, but she sounded uneasy.
Footsteps rang sharply down the hall. Then Augusta swept into the room. She cast a withering glance around her, at the faded wallpaper that hung in patches and tatters, and the uneven wooden floor, and the old dining room table, and the insect-eaten cushions on the high-backed chairs, and wrinkled her nose in distaste.
“I had hoped never to return to this place,” Augusta said. “It is just as hideous as I remembered.”
“Hello, Augusta,” the Lady Premiere said. “You’re just in time. The alchemist is about to perform the magic.”
“Magic!” the old lady from the train repeated. “Bah!” Then she sneezed.
“Magic!” Mo shook his head wonderingly. “Who’dve thought.”
“Magic!” In spite of herself, Liesl was curious.
Augusta swiveled her head in Liesl’s direction. “There you are, my pet. Safe and sound.” She came across the room, her long skirts rustling against the wooden floor with a hissing sound that reminded Liesl of a snake. She placed a hand heavily on Liesl’s shoulder and said in a low voice, “For the time being, at least. It will be a long journey back to Dirge, and these roads are very dangerous. I fear you will not make it.”
Liesl jerked away from her stepmother’s grasp and nearly toppled off her chair. Augusta laughed meanly.
“We are ready,” the alchemist announced. “Where is the magic?”
“The only magic I’d like to see—ACHOO!—is the delivery of these two troublemakers to jail.”
“Quiet!” the Lady Premiere thundered. She directed her fierce stare at the old woman and her two traveling companions. “I will permit you to stay because of your role in bringing these two thieves to justice. Especially you, sir. It is a credit to your loyalty.” She nodded at Mo, who blushed bright red all the way up to his hair and cast a desperate glance at Will. Will refused to look at him, feeling he had been terribly betrayed.
“But,” the Lady Premiere continued emphatically, “I must insist on absolute and total silence. If I hear so much as a peep from any of you, I can assure you, you will regret it.”
The old lady sneezed surreptitiously into the sleeve of her coat. Mo went rapidly from red to white. Even the policeman seemed to shrink guiltily backward, like a young boy with his hand caught in the cookie jar.
The Lady Premiere smiled tightly. “Much better.” She lowered herself into a chair at the head of the table.
“The potion, if you please,” said the alchemist. His hands were trembling slightly. It was time! Time, at last, to prove what he was capable of.
With great ceremony, the Lady Premiere withdrew the wooden box she had confiscated from Liesl and placed it carefully on the table in front of the alchemist.
Liesl gave a small cry of surprise. “That isn’t magic,” she said, startled into speaking out. “You’ve got everything mixed up. That’s my father. We carried him here, to bury him next to the willow tree.”
“Your father?” The Lady Premiere narrowed her eyes. She believed Liesl to be the servant girl Vera, as Augusta had claimed.
“Don’t listen to her,” Augusta jumped in. “The girl is full of lies. She conspired with the boy to steal the potion; she is only pretending to be confused, thinking you will spare her.”
“Then she does not know me,” the Lady Premiere said coldly. “There is no point in playing innocent with me, you poisonous wretch. You know as well as I do that the boxes were switched. What you’ve had with you all this time is nothing less than the greatest magic in the world.”
“In the universe!” the alchemist piped up.
Will was filled with a sense of wonder as the meaning of everything that had happened became clear. He remembered the two wooden boxes sitting side by side on Mr. Gray’s table, and how sleepy he was when he confused them. All at once, Will realized his error: He had taken Liesl’s father’s ashes to the Lady Premiere, and he and Liesl had been in possession of the real magic all along.
“It was an accident,” Will squeaked.
“It was treasonous!” the alchemist hissed.
“I don’t understand,” Liesl murmured. She was truly and hopelessly confused. “Where are my father’s ashes?”
“I have taken care of them.” Augusta bent down to speak quietly in Liesl’s ear. “Do not trouble your pretty little head about that.”