“But she’s too young, it could kill her!”
“If Zoey is what I think, then she is more special than either of you realize,” he replied evenly. “The Oracle won’t kill her; it will unlock her potential. As it did with you, you might remember.”
Mira glanced away with a haunted look. Whatever the Oracle was, it hadn’t left a good impression on her, Holt could tell. “What if you’re wrong?” she asked in a whisper.
“Then the weak have been rooted out, as is our way,” he said, matter-of-fact. “But the simple truth is … I am seldom wrong.”
Holt had heard enough of the old man’s riddles. They made less sense than Zoey’s. He looked back at Mira. “Where’s this Oracle thing? I’ll go get her.”
Mira opened her mouth to respond, but the Librarian cut her off. “I think you have more pressing concerns,” he said, looking past them.
Holt spun around and saw something on the ceiling above him. Amid the collection of stalactites was a small hole. And from the hole, three or four thick ropes suddenly tumbled down to the lift platform.
Seconds later, boys swung down them—more than two dozen, it looked like, spilling toward the platform, one after the other. Holt noticed they were all dressed in auburn red.
“Los Lobos!” Mira said in alarm. Apparently, the faction knew secret ways even into the Artifact Vault. If Holt didn’t get them out of here fast, they were all most likely dead.
The Librarian’s gaze hardened, and his hand touched a silver and black artifact strapped to his left arm. It glowed and hummed briefly, and then a curtain of light parted behind him. The Librarian stepped into it without a second glance and disappeared as the curtain closed.
Holt frowned. “Great, thanks for the help.” He spun back around to Mira. “Where’s this Oracle thing?”
“Behind the curtain,” she said, backing up and watching the Lobos warriors landing on the platform behind them, their eyes all coming to rest on them.
Holt grabbed Mira and ran for the curtain at the back of the teaching area. He guessed there was a tunnel on the other side of it, and he just hoped it would take them out of—
The jarring report of a gunshot ripped the air inside the cavern.
The sound meant it was over, and both Holt and Mira stopped short.
“Always running somewhere, aren’t you, Mira?” a familiar, dispassionate voice asked. “Even when there’s nowhere left to go.”
When Holt turned around, amid the dozen or so Lobos, he saw exactly whom he expected to see, glaring straight at Mira.
“Cesar,” Mira began, and it was obvious she was trying to keep the note of fear out of her voice. “I can explain all of this.”
“I’m sure you can,
roja,
” Cesar said. He looked even shorter than Holt remembered, and even more inflamed. “And I’m gonna give you that chance. Bring ’em here. Drag ’em by the hair if you have to.”
“I’d rather you didn’t!” another voice, a new one, yelled from the opposite end of the cavern, and everyone turned toward it.
Another group of kids stood in the main entrance to the Vault, glaring at both Los Lobos and Mira, each dressed in varying pieces of gray and white.
Gray Devils, about a dozen of them, blocking the exit out.
Holt sized up the situation quickly, noted with a sinking feeling that both groups were armed with guns. Supposedly, firearms were illegal in Midnight City, but Holt would have been surprised if the various factions didn’t hide some away for special occasions. And this situation, apparently, was
extremely
special.
All three groups tensed at the sight of one another, and it was clear from the menace in their looks that there was no love lost between Los Lobos and the Gray Devils. Slowly, their hands began to creep toward the triggers of their guns or the knives on their belts.
How could both Los Lobos and the Gray Devils know they were here? Holt wondered. They had covered their tracks well. Something didn’t add up, but Holt didn’t have time to worry about that now. He and Mira were trapped in the middle of both groups, the Librarian was gone, and there was nowhere left to run.
“Los Lobos,” one of the Gray Devils said with disdain. “You’re outgunned, so slink back the way you came before you get hurt. Mira Toombs is Gray Devils business.”
The Lobos members stared back defiantly, and made no move to leave. “Outgunned, maybe,” Cesar replied with an equal amount of scorn. “But never outmatched, especially by gray and white. Toombs owes us more than she can repay. Try to take her, if you wanna bleed for it.”
Holt started pulling Mira back and away to where Zoey must be. If there wasn’t an exit through that curtain, they were all in a lot of trouble.
“Fine,” the Gray Devil leader said casually. “You wanna die and give us your Points, that works for me. But let’s stop standing around talking about it.”
The tension lasted a few seconds more … and then the Gray Devils charged forward with yells of fury. So did Los Lobos.
Gunfire erupted everywhere, and bullets sparked along the walls and floor. The two sides slammed full-speed into each other, knives and clubs swinging, the groups clawing and kicking, trying to kill and maim.
Holt grabbed Mira and ran toward the curtain. But before they reached it, Mira screamed as more gunfire flashed behind them. They flinched as bullets streaked past.
Holt pulled Mira behind a table for protection as more bullets flew.
Six or so Lobos were running for them, Holt saw. Frustration washed over him as he realized there was nothing he could do. When they reached him, he fought anyway. He took out two of them before the others jumped him, and even landed a few punches in on a third.
From somewhere far away, he heard Mira scream as they pummeled him.
Just as the black began to push in around Holt’s vision, they started dragging him. He felt Mira struggling above him, being carried as well, away from the teaching area, back toward the lift platform. Holt tried to struggle, but there wasn’t much left in him now.
He heard the faint sounds of gunfire and screams. Through blurred vision, Holt saw four Gray Devils racing toward them, guns and knives ready. He heard Mira scream again.…
“Stop!” a small voice yelled from somewhere close by. Even though it was small, it carried through the large, empty space loud enough to draw everyone’s attention.
Holt craned his neck and saw Zoey standing in the study area. Max was next to her, growling low.
Zoey’s face was unreadable, neither alarmed nor frightened.
And then a voice echoed all around them, from nowhere in particular, filling the giant cavern. “Tell me what you saw, girl. Did you see the Tower?” It was the Librarian’s voice, and it halted the chaotic battle in place.
Zoey looked at the blank air around her and nodded.
“You were there when it happened, then? When the Strange Lands formed?” the voice asked eagerly, echoing off the walls of the Vault.
“Yes,” Zoey replied. “And I think I’ll be there again soon.”
There was a bright flash as the curtain of energy parted once more, and the Librarian stepped through. He looked at Zoey and nodded, and his shoulders seemed to sag in relief, as if a great tension had released. “Then you understand. Good.”
From his belt, he pulled a large, red encased artifact wrapped in silver chain, and then pushed a set of quarters down like buttons. When they clicked into place, the artifact began to glow and hum.
“Hey!” Cesar shouted. “Get that thing away from him!”
But the kids didn’t move. None of them were eager to rush the old man.
“I won’t let you harm the girl or her friends,” the Librarian said, and his voice was amplified again, filling the chamber, bouncing powerfully off the walls. The Lobos took a step back. “They all have much to do, more than any of them know.” His gaze focused on Mira, and she stared back at him. “Zoey is the Apex, Mira. The one I
knew
existed.”
Holt had no idea what that meant, but Mira’s eyes widened in absolute shock at the words.
“I know it’s hard to believe.” The red and silver artifact in his hands continued to glow and hum, as if it were building power. “But she will convince you on her own, I think. Protect and trust her, both of you. There is nothing more important in this world. And Mira…” He trailed off as his look turned poignant and deep. “You were always my favorite. Do not lament, girl. There’s no time for it.”
The Librarian tossed his artifact forward, and it sailed like a ball of flashing lights and colors through the air and disappeared into the depths of the pit.
He and Mira held their gaze a few moments more … and then, from below, came an angry, furious howl that ripped the air like thunder. Everyone in the cavern was blown off their feet as torrents of wind suddenly ripped past them, sucking them into the bottom of the pit like it was a whirlpool.
The two factions screamed as they flew backwards, dragged across the ground, disappearing over the edge and into the dark below.
The Librarian, however, stood still, letting the winds rip him from the cavern floor and fling him into the pit, where he plummeted out of sight.
“No!”
Mira screamed in anguish, watching the old man fall and disappear, gone forever.
Zoey grabbed a howling Max with one hand and held on to the solid leg of a workbench with the other, struggling to keep them both from being yanked away.
“Holt! The lifts!” Mira shouted as the maelstrom of air yanked everyone on the platform backwards.
Mira managed to grab on to the door of one as she flew past, dragging herself inside. Holt did the same, Lobos yelling in terror as they flew past him in the air.
Holt groaned as he started pulling himself inside the lift …
… and then another figure flew through its door and slammed into the back wall.
Cesar.
He and Holt glared at each other, and then the Lobos leader sneered and lunged toward him as the wind howled everywhere outside. It was so powerful, the lifts began to slide back on the platform toward the sheer drop on the other side of the ledge.
Cesar clamped on to Holt’s fingers, started prying them loose from the edge.
As Holt struggled with him, he looked the boy in the eyes.
“Al mal paso, darle prisa,”
Holt said. “Take bad steps quickly.” Cesar hesitated. Holt smiled. “It’s good advice.” He grabbed Cesar by the hair and yanked as hard as he could. The wind blowing through the cavern filled the lift enough to make the kid buoyant, and he flew through the door and fell screaming into the long drop below.
Holt pulled himself into the lift as it bucked and spun in the tumultuous winds. And then, finally, it all died down. The lifts slid back to their original position. The angry howl silenced. Everything was eerily quiet.
Holt and Mira crawled weakly out. There were six or seven Lobos and Gray Devils warriors left, but they were too exhausted for the moment to do anything.
Holt instinctively looked up to find—
Max rammed into him, licking and rubbing against him, and Holt sighed in relief. Zoey was running up behind the dog. “Holt!” she yelled.
Holt and Mira pushed to their feet, grabbed Zoey, and ran, heading for the tunnel back to the Shrine. Holt stared at it with intensity. They could make it if they hurried. They could
make
it.…
But behind them, what was left of the factions began to stir.
45.
BATTLE OF MIDNIGHT CITY
HOLT AND THE OTHERS DASHED
into Midnight City’s main hall, the haphazard buildings climbing up the black rock above them on either side of the underground street. They moved fast toward the Lost Knights compound, which lay on the northern end, on the other side of the Scorewall. The secret exit was their only hope of escape, and time was running out.
People all around Holt gasped as they recognized Mira. Holt kept moving, but the crowd thickened and pushed in on them, everyone trying to get a look or stopping to point, hundreds of them. It was getting tough to shove through it all.
“Move it, come on!” Holt yelled as he pushed to the front, trying to clear a path, taking Mira and Zoey’s hands. He was frantic, could feel their window of opportunity closing, in spite of all they had achieved. Getting Mira’s artifact. Escaping the Vault. Most important, Zoey had apparently found what she had come here for. Maybe she could heal Mira now, Holt thought with hope. Maybe everything was finally in his grasp. But the only way to find out was to get out of this cursed place.
His stomach twisted into knots as it always did when a goal was in sight. The last few steps were always the most precarious, the most dangerous, the point at which everything could be lost. And the feeling of Mira’s hand in his reminded him that he, for better or worse, once again had a lot to lose. The thought spurred him onward, and he pushed through all the people, dragging Mira and Zoey with him.
They were almost through. They were almost—
Shouts rang out from behind them. “Stop them! Stop Mira Toombs!”
Holt and Mira looked behind them … and saw dozens of kids dressed in gray and white pushing after them. At the front ran Lenore, a purplish red bruise on the side of her head where Holt had knocked her out. She glared at Mira with burning eyes. The rage that radiated from Lenore was enough to easily part the crowd before her. He felt Mira’s grip on his hand tighten.
“Out of the way!”
Holt yelled in despair, turning back to the crowd in front of him. They were almost
through
.…
But the crowd reached for them. Max barked viciously, lunging and driving them back, but it wasn’t enough.
“Holt!” Zoey yelled in fear behind him. But there was nothing he could do.
Holt felt dozens of hands on him, grabbing and tearing and punching. He felt searing pain in his head and ribs, and most horribly, he felt Mira and Zoey’s hands ripped out of his, heard their screams over the yells of the Midnight City mob, heard Max growl as two kids kicked him out of sight.
Holt struggled, but there were just too many hands on him, too many people to fight off.
The crowd calmed and suddenly parted, and the Gray Devils pushed into view, led by Lenore. Holt saw Zoey and Mira, both struggling, held in place by groups of kids, hands clamped over their mouths.