Carnival at Candlelight

sigh when you cross it—because you won’t be coming back for a long time!”
    Jack gripped Annie’s hand as they crossed a covered footbridge to another building. Once inside, they started down a lantern-lit hallway filled with puddles. Jack’s shoes felt squishy and soggy as he sloshed through the water.
    “Halt!” shouted the grouchy guard.
    Jack and Annie stopped in front of a heavy wooden door. The grouchy guard opened the door and pushed them into a dark, damp cell.
    The door slammed shut. Jack heard a heavy metal bolt clank into place. Then he heard the guards splash away down the hall, arguing with each other.
    The prison was eerily quiet. It was hard to breathe in the stale cell. It was hard to see, too. Only the dim light of the hallway shone faintlythrough the barred window. Under the window was a wooden bench.
    “What now?” Annie asked in a small voice.
    For a moment, Jack couldn’t answer. He was stunned. Minutes ago they’d been at the bright Carnival. Now they were locked in a dingy prison cell. “I—I’ll look in the book,” he said.
    Jack felt shaky as he opened their research book. He moved close to the barred window to read by the dim light. He looked up
prison
in the index. He found it and read aloud:
    The prison cells at ground level in the palace were called the pozzi, meaning “wells” or “pits.” They were dank, airless, and filled with rats. Even the government eventually decided they were too cruel.
    Jack heard a squeak from a dark corner. He stopped reading and looked up. He heard the squeak again. The hair went up on his neck.
Was that a rat?
he wondered.
    “Was that a rat?” said Annie.
    The squeak came again from the dark corner. Then a squeak came from another corner. Jack heard rustling along the walls and more squeaking.
    “Oh, man,” he breathed.
There were rats everywhere.
    “I think it’s time for magic,” said Annie.
    “Yep,” said Jack, “definitely.” He kept his eye on the dark corners while Annie reached into his backpack and pulled out Teddy and Kathleen’s book.
    Annie read from the table of contents:
“Make a Stone Come Alive. Make Metal Soft. Turn into Ducks.”
Annie looked up. “Are rats afraid of ducks?” she asked.
    “Forget ducks!” said Jack. “Go back to
Make Metal Soft—
that’s what we need to do! You read the rhyme, and I’ll try to pull the bars apart.”
    “Okay, good,” said Annie.
    Jack jumped onto the wooden bench under the barred window. The squeaking grew louder.
    Jack reached up and felt the iron bars. They were cold and hard and very solid. Jack couldn’t imagine bending them.
    The squeaks were getting louder. Jack gripped two bars in the middle of the window and took a deep breath. “Read the rhyme!” he said.
    Annie read aloud:
    Iron or copper, brass or steel
,
    Bree-on-saw! Bro-on-beel!
    As Annie finished the rhyme, the bars began to glow. They grew warmer in Jack’s hands. “I think it’s working!” he cried.
    Holding the bars tightly Jack pulled in opposite directions. Slowly the glowing bars began to stretch and bend. Jack pulled till there was an opening large enough for Annie and him to fit through.

    “We did it!” he cried.
    “Great! Hurry, hurry! The rats are coming!” cried Annie as she jumped on the bench.
    Jack heard a chorus of squeaks from all sides of the cell. He looked down. He saw the shadowy shapes of dozens of rats. They seemed to be sniffing the air below the window.
    “Go! Go!” Jack cried to Annie.
    Annie squeezed between the bars and jumped down into the hallway. Jack followed her. He hit the wet floor and scrambled to his feet. “Come on!” he cried.
    Jack and Annie sloshed down the watery hallway. At the end of it, they nearly bumped right into the two guards. Jack and Annie kept running.
    “Hey!” the grouchy guard shouted, running after them. He reached for Jack. The other guard tried to catch Annie.

    Jack and Annie dodged away from them. The guards crashed into each other, falling to the floor. Jack and Annie kept running. They dashed across the Bridge of Sighs. They ran through the corridor and up the steep stone steps.
    “This way!” cried Jack. He and Annie tore down the hall, heading for the Golden Staircase.
    “Hey! Hey!” the guards yelled from far behind.
    Jack and Annie bounded down the Golden Staircase two steps at a time. They flew down the hall and down the Giants’ Stairs. They ran past the statues of Mars and Neptune and charged down the long,