Carnival at Candlelight

it. He read aloud:

    Jack pushed his glasses into place. “Hmm,” he said.
    “I wonder who the Grand Lady is,” said Annie. “And why do we need to save her?”
    “I’m wondering lots of stuff,” said Jack. “What about the King of the Jungle? We’re in a city, not a jungle. And what about that angel? And—”
    “Let’s just take one thing at a time,” said Annie. “What are we supposed to do first?”
    Jack looked back at the letter and read:
    When waters rise beneath the moon
,
    Visit the Grand Lady of the Lagoon.
    “So let’s start by finding the Grand Lady,” said Annie. She headed down the tree house ladder.
    Jack put Merlin’s letter into his backpack, along with Morgan’s research book and Teddy and Kathleen’s book of magic rhymes. Then he climbed down the rope ladder and caught up with Annie.
    Jack and Annie walked over a pebbly path as the sky darkened.
Good
, thought Jack.
It’s night.
He didn’t want anyone to see him in his silly outfit—especially the red slippers with the bows.
    “That must be the way out,” said Annie. She led Jack to a wooden gate in the garden wall and pushed it open.
    Jack and Annie stepped through the gate onto a quiet, empty walkway. Next to the walkway was a narrow lane of water.
    “I guess that’s a canal,” said Jack.
    “And that must be a gondola,” said Annie. She pointed to a long, curved black boat rounding the corner. In the last light of day, the gondola was gliding silently up the canal toward them.
    “Yikes,” whispered Annie.
    There were two people in the boat—a gondolier and a passenger. Each wore a black cloak, white gloves, and a ghostly white mask. The masks had long, pointy noses shaped like bird beaks. The passenger sat in the middle of the boat, holding a lantern. The gondolier stood in the back, pushing a long oar through the water.
    “They look a lot weirder than us,” said Annie.
    “No kidding,” said Jack.
    “Hello!” the passenger shouted.

    The person’s voice was muffled behind the white mask. “Do you need help?”
    “Yes!” Annie shouted back. “Can you take us to the Grand Lady of the Lagoon?”
    “Yes, of course. She is back that way!” answered the masked passenger. “Come.”
    “Great!” said Annie. She grabbed Jack’s hand and pulled him over to the gondola. The gondola rocked a bit as she and Jack climbed aboard and took seats between the gondolier and the passenger.
    The gondolier pushed the gondola away from the landing. His long oar made soft splashes in the water as the boat moved up the canal.
    Jack cleared his throat. “Um, excuse me,” he said. “Why are you wearing bird masks?”
    “For Carnival, of course,” said the passenger. “That is why you are wearing clown costumes, no?”
    “Oh, yeah, sure,” said Jack.
    As the gondola slid through the canal, Jack snuck their research book out of his backpack.
    “Oh, boy, a carnival!” Annie whispered to Jack. “I hope it has a roller coaster.”
    “I don’t think they had roller coasters two hundred sixty years ago,” whispered Jack.
    Jack looked up
carnival
in the index. Hefound the page. Then he and Annie silently read together:
    For many centuries, Carnival has been the most famous yearly festival of Venice. For Carnival, people disguise themselves as anything they want to be. Rich, poor, male, female, young, and old—all are equal during Carnival.
    “Look, that’s us,” whispered Annie. She pointed to a picture of a colorful costume with a white ruffled collar and red slippers with bows.
    “Yeah, and that’s them,” whispered Jack. He pointed to a picture of a person dressed in a black cloak and a white mask with a bird’s beak.
    Jack closed the book and put it away. The gondola people didn’t seem so weird anymore. But he still wondered why a grand lady was in terrible danger at Carnival.
    As the boat glided around a bend, Jack caught his breath. He saw dozens of gondolas rocking on the choppy waters of a wide, open canal. Theywere all decorated with ribbons and flowers. Candlelight from their lanterns danced on the dark, rippling water.
    “Look, that must be Carnival over there,” said Annie, pointing.
    In the distance, thousands of candles twinkled along the shoreline. Sounds of laughter, clapping, and shouting floated over the water.
    “Hold on tightly!” said the masked person in the front of the gondola. “The tide is high tonight!” As their gondola joined the fleet of boats heading toward Carnival, the