Blizzard of the Blue Moon: A Merlin Mission

museum!” said Annie. “Let’s go in and ask them how to get to the zoo.”
    “Yeah, and get warm for a minute,” said Jack.
    He and Annie climbed the snow-covered steps of the Cloisters. Annie opened the door, and the wind nearly swept them inside.
    They pushed the door shut.
    “Ah! My first visitors all day!” a woman chirped.
    Jack and Annie turned around. A museum lady sat at a desk in a corner. Dressed in a green uniform, she was tall and thin with a friendly face and short gray hair.
    “I’m sorry, but we can’t stay long,” said Annie. “We just came here to get warm for a minute and get some information.”
    “What can I tell you?” the woman asked.
    “We’re trying to get to the Bronx Zoo,” said Jack. “Is there a subway near here?”
    “Well, the A train is close by,” said the museum lady. “But that won’t take you anywhere near the zoo.”
    “Oh, darn,” said Annie.
    “Oh, I wouldn’t be so sad,” the woman saidbrightly. “If I were you, I’d stay right here and enjoy the Cloisters! You won’t regret it, I promise. The Cloisters holds most of the medieval collection of the world-famous Metropolitan Museum of Art.”
    “What’s a cloister?” Annie asked.
    “It’s an enclosed garden or courtyard,” said the museum lady. “We have four in all. They beautifully evoke medieval times, from the Romanesque period to the light, airy elegance of the Gothic.”
    “Cool,” said Jack politely. He had no idea what she was talking about.
    “I suppose the gardens
are
cool most days, my dear,” said the woman. “But today they are freezing! Never mind, you don’t have to spend time in the gardens to enjoy the museum. Inside, we have many beautiful exhibits. The tapestries are especially lovely. They were woven with beautiful yarns by weavers from the Netherlands. For years, they hung in a French castle and managedto escape destruction during the Revolution. Then, for two generations—”
    “Excuse me,” said Jack. He was eager to end the woman’s boring lecture so they could be on their way.
    But she kept talking excitedly. “The tapestries were used by peasants to protect potatoes stored in their barns until, eventually, a countess rescued them. They were restored, and in 1922, Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., bought them. Just last year, Mr. Rockefeller gave them as gifts to—”
    “Oh, that is so cool!” interrupted Jack loudly. He pretended to be interested so they could escape. “We’d
love
to see them! Where are they?”
    “The tapestry room is just on the other side of the first cloister,” the woman said, pointing. “Turn that corner, go out the door, and then walk through the garden to the door of the tapestry room.”
    “Let’s go, Annie. Quick!” said Jack. He and Annie went around the corner, out the door, and into a snowy garden.
    “Whew!” said Jack. “I didn’t want to be rude. But we’re short on time.”
    “I know,” said Annie.

    “What now?” said Jack, shivering in the cold.
    “We need to figure out exactly where we are,” said Annie, “and where the Bronx Zoo is. Maybe we can just walk there from here.”
    “Come on, let’s get inside the tapestry room and check our research book for a map,” said Jack.
    They walked along the edge of the garden under a covered walkway. When they came to a door, Jack pushed it open, and he and Annie slipped out of the cold into a large, warm room.
    Jack closed the door against the storm and unbuckled his briefcase to take out their research book.
    “Ohh … wow!” breathed Annie.
    “What? What?” said Jack. He looked up.
    The walls of the room were covered with cloth hangings—tapestries shimmering with gold and silver.
    “Oh … !” whispered Jack.
    “A
unicorn!”
said Annie.

T here were seven tapestries in all. Each was almost as high as the wooden ceiling. Jack read aloud from a sign on the wall under the first one:
    The Hunt of the Unicorn
Tapestries woven in the Netherlands
at the end of the 1400s
    The first tapestry showed hunters and hounds searching for the unicorn. The second showed the unicorn being found.
    The other tapestries showed the unicorn trying to escape, leaping from a stream, chased byhounds, then captured and slain by the hunters’ spears.
    Oddly, the last tapestry showed the unicorn alive again. He was sitting in a garden of flowers surrounded by a wooden fence. There was a wide blue and gold collar around his neck, and he was chained to a