Carnival at Candlelight

This is a book in the Magic Tree House Merlin Missions series, a children's fantasy adventure series in which siblings Jack and Annie use a magic tree house to travel through time and space on quests assigned by figures from Arthurian legend.

At dawn, Jack and his sister Annie each have the same dream: They are running through the Frog Creek woods toward the magic tree house, where two friends wave from the window. They rush outside and find the tree house in the tallest oak. Inside, Teddy and Kathleen, young sorcerer apprentices to the enchantress Morgan le Fay, explain that the wizard Merlin has an important mission. This time the apprentices will not accompany them; Morgan believes Jack and Annie are ready to use magic on their own, though Merlin wants them to prove themselves across four missions. Kathleen gives them a small book containing ten magic rhymes, each usable only once, meant to last all four journeys. Teddy provides a research book titled A Visit to Venice, Italy and a sealed letter from Merlin. The children will travel to Venice as it was 260 years ago. Teddy and Kathleen use pale blue glass rings to vanish back to Camelot, Merlin and Morgan's magical home. Jack wishes the tree house to Venice.

Jack and Annie arrive wearing colorful clown costumes under a gray, stormy sky. Jack reads Merlin's letter, which warns that the Grand Lady of the Lagoon, a mysterious figure whose identity the children must discover, is in terrible danger, and only the Ruler of the Seas, another figure they must identify, can save her. The letter provides cryptic rhyming directions: Seek a painter named Tiepolo, climb a tower at midnight when two men tell the time, ride the King of the Jungle through the air, and follow an angel of gold to the sea by night and home by day. Confused, Annie suggests taking one step at a time.

They find a canal where a gondola, a shallow boat propelled by a standing oarsman, approaches carrying two masked passengers in black cloaks. One offers them a ride and explains the costumes are for Carnival, a famous Venetian festival where everyone wears disguises. As they reach a wide canal filled with decorated gondolas, Jack notes the high tide and distant thunder.

They disembark at a crowded waterfront where water is sloshing onto the pavement. Annie mistakes a costumed person for the Grand Lady, but they cannot identify the right one. They try to find the painter Tiepolo, whom the research book identifies as one of Venice's greatest painters of the 1700s. A clown tells them Tiepolo lives near the Church of San Felice but is away in Milan. They then head to the ruler's palace on Saint Mark's Square, hoping to find the Ruler of the Seas.

The square is alive with candlelight, musicians, and acrobats. Jack reads about its landmarks, noting the watchtower weather vane points north, indicating southern winds. A guard blocks the palace door, but stilt-walking clowns distract him and Jack and Annie slip inside. They explore the palace but find the ruler absent. In the Map Room, they see paintings of winged lions, the symbol of Venice. Guards discover them, accuse them of being thieves, and march them across the Bridge of Sighs, a covered footbridge, into a dark prison cell called a pozzi. Annie reads the "Make Metal Soft" rhyme while Jack grips the iron window bars. The bars soften, and the children squeeze through, dodge the guards, and escape into the square.

Resolving to follow Merlin's steps more patiently, they head toward the Church of San Felice. A woman at a café mentions heavy mountain rains raising the water. Near the church, an old man confirms Tiepolo will be gone for months. Jack feels discouraged, but Annie spots a light inside Tiepolo's house. A boy introduces himself as Lorenzo Tiepolo, the painter's son, who works on his own canvases while his father and older brother are away. When Annie mentions the Ruler of the Seas, Lorenzo uncovers a large painting depicting a beautiful woman resting her hand on a golden lion while a bearded man with a three-pronged spear offers her coins. The man is Neptune, the Roman god of the sea: the Ruler of the Seas. The woman represents Venice herself: the Grand Lady of the Lagoon. Jack realizes their mission is to save the entire city from disaster.

The research book explains that a catastrophic flood occurs when four conditions combine: a high tide, strong southern winds, heavy mountain runoff, and severe storms at sea. Every condition is present. Water flows into the square above their ankles while revelers celebrate obliviously.

At the waterfront, a clock chimes twelve times as two bronze statues strike a bell atop the clock tower: the "two men" from Merlin's directions. Jack and Annie climb the tower to the bell terrace. The next lines of Merlin's letter say the King of the Jungle will carry them through the air. Annie spots a stone winged lion on a ledge below the terrace. Jack reads the "Make a Stone Come Alive" rhyme, and the statue transforms into a living lion with a golden coat and luminous feathered wings. They climb onto his back, but as the lion leaps into the air, the rhyme book slips from Jack's arm and falls to the flooded square.

The lion carries them over the stormy sea through crashing waves and lightning. Far from land, Annie shouts for Neptune, urging Jack to use his imagination. Frightened at first, Jack draws courage from the lion's roar and imagines Neptune as shown in Tiepolo's painting. Lightning reveals a huge spear rising from the waves, then Neptune's enormous form towering above the sea. Jack and Annie beg him to save Venice. Neptune thrusts his spear into the waves. The storm ceases, the clouds part to reveal stars, and Neptune sinks beneath the surface.

The lion carries them back through the dawn. He lands on the clock tower terrace, licks their hands, and transforms back into stone. The bronze men strike six times, marking morning. The gold angel weather vane now points west, toward home, fulfilling Merlin's final instruction. Annie retrieves the damp but legible rhyme book from debris in the square, with eight rhymes remaining for three more journeys. They find Lorenzo painting the morning canal. He accepts their tale without surprise and gives them his unfinished canvas, urging them to paint what they saw because they have the gift of imagination.

Annie spots the same gondola from the night before. As the gondolier helps Jack ashore, Jack accidentally pulls off the gondolier's glove, revealing a pale blue glass ring identical to the ones Teddy and Kathleen used. The gondolier pulls the glove back on and vanishes into sunlight. Jack and Annie suspect the masked figures were Teddy and Kathleen, watching over them all along.

They return to the tree house and wish themselves home to Frog Creek. Jack notes that Venice was not destroyed, so they have passed their first test. Walking through the chilly dawn woods with Lorenzo's canvas, they excitedly plan what to paint: gondolas, costumed figures, the flying lion, Neptune rising from the sea, and themselves on the lion's back, grinning.