Gently, he tries to tell Audrey that Albert is likely dead, but she refuses to believe him and calls him a coward for abandoning her father when he needed aid. When he learns she is the daughter of Albert, Piccadilly presents the latter's mousebrass which had been entrusted to him. On her way back through the sewers Audrey meets Piccadilly. However, the mouse soon determines that Akkikuyu is a fraud and angrily leaves. That night, Audrey slips into the sewers to visit a rat fortune teller named Madame Akkikuyu, hoping she can tell her where her father is. The Anti-Cat Charm is rarely given out as cats are never seen in the area. Her family is doubtful when Audrey tells them about her experience, but do wonder at the mousebrass she received.

When Audrey goes to get her mousebrass, she is shocked to encounter the Green Mouse, a benevolent deity worshipped by the mice, who personally hands her a pendant known as the Anti-Cat Charm. This year Albert's children Arthur and Audrey will receive theirs, but Audrey is too preoccupied with thoughts of her missing father to be excited about the festivities. The next morning is the Great Spring Celebration, an important holiday for the mice when those who have come of age are given mousebrasses, magical talismans that help guide them through their lives. Unable to save himself, he tells Piccadilly to run for his life. Whilst eavesdropping on a conversation between the evil being and his rat lieutenant, Morgan, Albert is captured and taken away to be killed by Jupiter. After hours of wandering they find themselves in the altar chamber of Jupiter. He meets a young city mouse named Piccadilly who is also lost and the two quickly become friends. One mouse named Albert Brown is drawn into the sewers by dark enchantments on the grill in the house's basement. No one has ever seen Jupiter, not even his subjects, and rumours abound as to who or what he truly is. The only problem they have is a fear of the vicious rats in the sewers below who worship a mysterious living god called Jupiter. Plot Ī community of mice lives an idyllic existence in an old empty house in the London borough of Deptford. In 2000, it was published by SeaStar Books in the United States and given the Booklist Editors' Choice designation. The book was first published in the United Kingdom by Macdonald & Company in 1989, and was a runner-up for that year's Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. Her search takes her into the sewers of Deptford where, with the help of her friends and family, she must face an army of evil rats and their living god, a mysterious being known as Jupiter.

The first book in The Deptford Mice trilogy and Jarvis's debut novel, it follows the story of Audrey Brown, a mouse girl who is looking for her missing father. The Dark Portal is a dark fantasy novel for children by British author Robin Jarvis.

The dark portal by robin jarvis