“Right.” Walter propped the crutches against the wall and balanced the sword box on the step behind them. “Anything short of ten-foot bunnies dancing in purple top hats and carrying bazookas, and we’ll probably believe you.”
“No,” Karen deadpanned, “they don’t have bazookas; they carry missile launchers.”
Walter laughed out loud, then clamped his free hand over his mouth. When he regained control, he whispered, “Girl, I like your style!”
Walter retrieved his load, and the three resumed their descent. “Truthfully,” Karen continued, after another twenty steps, “Doc told us there’s a monster in the cave, and I’ve heard it. It sounds like rumbling and growling, and sometimes like an old man with a terrible rattling wheeze, like someone dumped a bag of rocks down a garbage disposal.”
Walter thought about the description. It sounded familiar somehow. He stayed quiet for a moment, hoping the professor would speak up. Apparently his teacher was lost in thought. “So, Prof,” Walter said in a whisper, “now we might have to deal with a monster. Do you want me to take him, or can you handle it by yourself?”
Karen snapped back, her voice sarcastically sweet. “We’re about two-thirds of the way, Walter, dear. I think it’s time for you to shut up.”
The professor stopped and turned around, forcing the other two to halt. He shone the thin beam, first in Walter’s face, then in Karen’s. “Walter, Karen,” the professor began, his voice spiked with agitation, “although it is time for silence, I must make an entreaty.” He took a deep breath before continuing more calmly. “Let us proceed as a team. We may be called upon to sacrifice a great deal for one another. A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Walter and Karen faced each other, neither saying a word for a few seconds until Walter stripped off his glove and extended his hand. “The prof’s right. I shouldn’t tease like that. I believe you heard a monster; I just like to joke around a lot. Still friends?”
Karen pulled off her glove and grasped his hand. “Don’t worry, friend.” She then took Excalibur’s box from him and tucked it under her arm, patting it with her free hand. “If any ten-foot bunnies come hopping around, I’ve got your back.”
After explaining the translumination procedure to Billy, Ashley pointed out a digital display on the control panel with large illuminated numerals. She spoke hurriedly. “The controls will be set on a timer to reverse automatically. Right now it’s showing the time until we transluminate. Then it will reset and count down again. When that counter gets to zero, there’s no choice, we have to come back, with or without Bonnie. I can’t override it, because I’ll be hanging on to you. Understand?”
Billy gave her a quick nod. “Got it.”
“Now there’s one more decision to make,” Ashley said as she smoothed out Billy’s sleeve again. “I assume you want to be the diver.”
Billy drew his arm back and readjusted the cuff. “Well, yeah. Don’t you think so? I mean, I’ve faced Devin before. I know his tricks.”
Ashley walked across the lab to the diver’s dome. “Yes, that’s true. But there’s a problem.” Once at the dome, she sat on the platform, the glass enclosure hanging a few feet above her head. “We never properly restored any of the male chimps we tested, and we don’t know why. It couldn’t be a coincidence. The females all worked fine.”
Billy stepped over to the platform and placed one foot on it. “I overheard Dr. Conner talking about that.” He sat down next to her, glad that the robe was keeping his nausea at bay. He tried to read Ashley’s eyes, shadowy, yet penetrating. Would she understand? “I’m not a chimp. And I’m not worried about what happens to me, as long as I get Bonnie out. I’m not afraid.”
Ashley stood up, holding her hand over her heart. “Well . . . maybe you should be.” She waved toward the candlestone. “I read about your fire breathing, but I don’t think you’ll be able to use it in there.”
Billy checked the cotton belt on his jeans and stepped up to the platform. “I won’t need it.”
Ashley pulled on the loose ends of his sash, tightening it further. “So I can’t talk you out of it? I could be the diver. I know I could do it.”
Billy slid his ring up and down on his finger, then balled his hand into a fist. The slayer was crafty, brutal. How could he let anyone else face that monster? This was his fight and his fight alone. He had to make up for his failure against Palin.
The last words of one of Merlin’s prophecies drifted back into his mind.
The soul set free must face the beast
And break his chains to fears of earth
To free the faithful heart of love
And prove the seeds of royal birth
Billy clenched his fists. “I’m going.”
Ashley smiled, gazing at him again with her piercing eyes. “You’re just like Bonnie, aren’t you?” She pressed a button on the base of the platform, lowering the glass dome. As the bottom edge passed below Billy’s chest, she called, “Just remember; don’t let go of my hand!”
Billy gave a thumbs-up signal, but his legs shook, and he knew if he hadn’t been clenching his fingers into a tight ball, his hands would be as jittery as a Chihuahua in a tiger’s cage. Only Ashley’s words could bring peace to his mind.
You’re just like Bonnie.
He closed his eyes and smiled.
I’m not exactly like her. We’re both dragons, and she’s taught me a lot, but I know I’m the one who has to defeat Devin.
Walter crept up behind the professor, who had stopped abruptly. “What’s that light up ahead?” he whispered.
The professor shone his beam on the source of light and kept his voice low. “It appears to be a door.”
“It’s the door to the lab,” Karen said. “The Alpha entrance.”
The professor clicked off his light. “Then alpha marks the beginning of our next adventure. I suggest we listen for a few moments to ascertain the possible dangers we might face inside.”
Walter placed the crutches and box next to the wall, then blew softly on his cupped hands. “Good. I need a breather.”
Karen sighed. “We were supposed to take turns. You only let me carry it for two minutes.”
“So I like flower boxes,” Walter quipped. “Can’t a guy show a little culture?”
Karen let out a low groan, and the professor stifled a laugh. “Very well, Walter. Our signal to enter will be your readiness to continue. I see no reason to burst in hastily.”
Karen placed her ear on the door. “I hear something. It may be the equipment engines.” She pulled on Walter’s sleeve. “Rest up quick.”
Walter slid down the wall and plopped on the floor. “I’m resting as fast as I can.”
Ashley quickstepped toward the anchor dome. As she passed the pedestal, she noticed that the candlestone had moved slightly, shaken from its place by the recent tremor. She picked it up gently and held it in the palm of her hand, peering through its input facets. She marveled at the mystery of a hidden world and at the power of a light-absorbing stone.
Why does it sap the power of a dragon? Why does it steal Billy’s breath and rob Bonnie’s strength to fly? And yet, it seems to choose its victims. Very strange!
She put the gem back on its spot and jumped up on her dome pedestal, bending over to press the button to lower the glass. She checked the starting timer and signaled to Billy. “Thirty seconds to go.”
Ashley shivered, though it wasn’t that cold. Looking around the circle to her left, she watched Billy, his eyes closed, his face adorned with a peaceful smile. He was courageous, perhaps naively so. Yet, he seemed to exude confidence, the kind of peace that comes from a single-minded purpose. It was a good thing. In just a few seconds they would go on their greatest adventure, hand-in-hand, a thought that encouraged Ashley’s trembling mind.
I think I’ll need to borrow some of his moxie.
A loud slam disrupted the chamber’s peaceful hum. Ashley spun in her dome. Someone was entering the lab area from the Omega entrance.
Impossible! No one has the key to that door except—
“Ashley!” Dr. Conner shouted. “Are you in here?”
Ashley’s throat twisted like a tourniquet. They were caught! Would he try to stop them? She couldn’t even squeak a reply. Only twelve seconds to translumination!
Dr. Conner turned on the lights and leaped onto the lab platform, his eyes wild. “Ashley! The cave’s collapsed. I could barely crawl through. I can’t find her anywhere. She’s gone!”
Doc’s clothes were dirty, and blood smudged his face. Ashley glanced at the timer and held up her hand with her fingers splayed. Five seconds!
Dr. Conner spun in a quick circle as if taking in the scene for the first time. “What?” he yelled, almost shrieking. “You’re doing a dive?”
Ashley nodded her head, and as the vibrations shot through her feet and legs, turmoil clenched her face into a knot. As Doc ran toward the control panel, everything in her vision buzzed and blurred, scattering into weird shapes and wild, chaotic shards of light. Even Dr. Conner’s words stirred into the confusing mix as they died away in her new world of dazzling light. She could barely hear him say, “I’ll put a stop to this!”
Chapter 18
Ashley had no choice. Even though Doc might try to stop her, she was already transluminated. She had to continue. But how? Everything felt weird—puzzling and confusing—yet so bright she could hardly take in all her surroundings.
She had to think, pause a second and just think.
I have to find the exit point. Where is it? The whole room’s swirling. I’ve got to get a grip!
She tried to move. Her brain’s normal motion signals transformed into light pulses, a new kind of command her transluminated body struggled to understand. After a few tries, she had some success, and the flood of light in her strange world shifted as she inched along in her dome. Finally, she found the exit point and poured her flashing body into the flexible tube, grasping the anchoring spurs as she slid through the glass.
Watch out, Billy! Here I come!
A flood of light poured into Billy’s brain, snapping him to attention. Everything was different—altered and distorted. He remembered Ashley’s instructions. The whole procedure was timed, including when he would be sucked into the stone, so he expected her to come through to his cylinder at any second. She had to get through to him and attach or else he’d be slurped down that photon straw without an anchor.
A burst of light erupted from the anchor tube. Ashley!
Somehow she extended her hand and grabbed his, and not too soon. One second later, he was falling, zipping down a gushing waterfall of light. An avalanche of flashing strobes zoomed all around his body. He rocketed downward, free-falling at a million miles per hour, and a tidal wave of agitated light stung his face like a swarm of angry gnats poking with hot needles.
After a few seconds, he slammed into a black, jelly-like membrane, and his body punched right through, leaving the flood of light, gnats and all, behind. The breakneck plunge slowed to a gentle, floating sensation.
Except for Ashley’s pull from above, he floated freely. His body pulsated—a chaotic jumble of white flashes with a circle of red at one edge. He stared at the crimson glow.
My rubellite?
He came to a stop in a chasm of utter darkness, a land of charcoal drawings on a black canvas.
This must be the place. Time to find Bonnie.
Bonnie searched the dark crystal skies for Billy’s entrance.
She could see the entry stream, which had suddenly exploded into a raging river, but she couldn’t tell where a diver might push through to the inner core. As she watched, a glimmer of light appeared in the sky and floated in her direction.
Could that be Billy? It has to be!
A voice, soft and sweet, flowed from the light. It wasn’t of the same quality she had been hearing from Devin or her mysterious friend; it sounded faraway and choppy.
“You can come out now,” the voice said.
That sounds like Ashley’s voice!
“I know you’re here. Come on out.”
It is! It is Ashley’s voice! She came in instead of Billy!
The mass of light grew and floated into her presence, extending a ragged arm in her direction.
“Come on out. You can trust me.”
Ashley’s voice still sounded far off and strange, but there was no mistaking it. Of course, Ashley had never done a dive, so she hadn’t learned to communicate very well in her new form. And since she had only been in the stone for a few seconds, she had not yet begun to take on her normal shape.
Bonnie put out her hand, and in her willingness to join her rescuer, her shield of light eroded. The two hands inched closer. Bonnie noticed her shield weakening and paused.
The voice spoke again. “Do you sense danger?” The words were still choppy, still faraway, but still Ashley’s.
“No. No, it’s just— ”
“Hold your questions and be patient. . . . Too much information can make your brain choke.”
That has to be Ashley!
Bonnie wanted to leave her dark prison and find her mother more than anything, and her friend was there to make it happen. She thrust her hand forward. “C’mon!” Bonnie called, “let’s get out of here!” When the lights touched, the two melded, and the joining burned like an electric shock.
“I’ve got you now, Witch!”
Bonnie screamed and jerked back, but Devin’s grip clamped down like the jaws of a pit bull. “How . . . how did you?” She couldn’t continue; the slayer’s electric vise scorched all her senses, sending shock waves of intense pain throughout her body.
The indistinct form swirled, reshaping into Devin’s persona, returning a sinister smile to his malevolent face. “It was child’s play, my dear. Recording voices is quite simple once you’ve been in here long enough. Our friends outside were kind enough to leave the communication lines open, and I did a bit of eavesdropping.”
Bonnie struggled, twisting and pulling back with all her might. Sparks flew, but she couldn’t shake loose his hold.
Devin dragged her away, his spiteful voice ripping its coarse static into her mind. “Time for you to join the monkeys and the fools, little angel.” He stopped at the edge of the chasm, dangling her body over its narrow opening. “You were a fierce enemy. It’s a shame you were on the wrong side.”
Bonnie froze, not wanting to slip from his grasp. She peered below, and the swirling ghosts came together, like crocodiles swarming to meet a fallen victim. “Billy will come,” she cried. “He’ll take care of you.”
“Oh, I know he’ll come. And he’ll be duped as easily as you were. You’ve given me a nice collection of sounds to work with.” His raspy voice mutated into Bonnie’s recent, excited call. “C’mon! Let’s get out of here!”
The words were hers! The tone was hers! What would Billy do? This would all be new to him. Would he be fooled? She shook away her fears, and with all her might, she shouted, “You won’t get away with it!”
“Oh, yes. Yes, I will. I’ve been getting away with it for over a thousand years. And I still have more dragon-kind to kill.”
Bonnie tried to sing. “If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover—”
“Too late, Witch!” Devin released Bonnie, and she plummeted through the blackness of the gem’s dungeon. She tried to grab with her hands of light, but nothing held; the walls were pure, crystalline glass, and something from beneath pulled with relentless force. She plunged farther and farther into the pit as the slayer’s scornful laughter faded into a rush of dark wind.
Walter nudged the door open a crack and peeked out into the huge room. Near the center he saw Dr. Conner pounding on a panel of some kind. He ducked back inside the tunnel. “Prof! It’s the lab, all right. And Dr. Conner’s in there. He’s mad as a hornet.”
The professor turned to Karen. “The sword, please.”
Karen opened the box, and the professor grasped the hilt. Instantly the sword changed from a lifeless gray blade into a blazing white saber. He took one crutch and pressed it under his armpit before turning back to Walter. “The time has come. Wisdom and caution must unite with action and speed. Let’s go!”
Billy searched through the vast darkness. It was like floating in a windowless closet without a speck of light in the universe except his own, and even that bounced off the blanket of blackness without making a dent. A wind blew through his body, dark streams crisscrossing his shining form.
At last he spotted another light.
Bonnie?
“Careful, Billy.”
What?
The warning voice seemed to come from inside his mind.
Who said that?
“It’s Ashley. We’re connected, so I can talk to you. And I can hear some of your thoughts. Guard them well.”
Hear my thoughts? How does that work?
“I don’t know. It’s sort of a mind meld, I guess. Don’t worry; I haven’t heard much, so I guess I can only hear your louder thoughts. Let’s get going. I can’t see what you see, but I’m going to stretch out as far as I can so you can go find out who that is.”
You may not have to. It’s coming this way.
The light closed in rapidly, the shapeless mass forming into a young female body. The face, though nondistinct, radiated, and Billy heard an excited voice coming from its direction. “C’mon! Let’s get out of here!”
It was Bonnie! The light stretched out an appendage, and Billy reached toward it, his glowing red ring floating in the black surroundings. The approaching light drew closer and closer, filled with energy and flashing white . . . but no circle of red.
No ring!
A hard yank jerked Billy backwards. “I heard that Billy! I know Bonnie’s ring went in there with her.”
He flew away from the imposter, and its bright light flashed crimson, crisscrossed with pulsating yellow stripes.
Billy yelled to Ashley, his thoughts now loud streams of static words. “I know it’s Devin, but I have to go back.”
“No! You can’t possibly fight him. He knows the ways of the candlestone better than you do. He’s been in there for weeks!”
“I’m not looking for a fight,” Billy said as he pulled against Ashley’s pressure. “I’m looking for Bonnie! But if I have to fight him, I will . . . face-to-face.”
Bonnie shivered, her glowing skin flickering in what felt like a chilling breeze. She had crashed to the floor of the cavern, her flashing body flattened against the crystalline surface.
I guess it doesn’t hurt to splat against anything in this place.
She pushed herself off the floor. One good piece of news—the circling phantoms were nowhere in sight. Somehow the swirling forces had tossed her body to one side, though she couldn’t tell how far.
It wasn’t so dark here. The river of light flowed through this area, gushing toward the candlestone’s exit point, and it lent a shimmering glow to the chasm’s lower chamber.
Another light approached, its gentle radiance strengthening as it drew closer. A second light appeared, then a third! Within seconds six flashing phantoms, a group of men with hardened faces and bright, flowing hair, surrounded her. They pressed around her and stared, almost as if they were sniffing, like a pack of dogs trying to detect who or what she was.
“It is not Devin,” one of them said.
“Another ape?” a second one asked.
“Probably. It has arms and legs. Its features are not yet distinct.”
A third voice joined in. “Well, I didn’t expect that he’d just slip and fall down here.”
“Perhaps not. If he ever does, it will be his last mistake.”
The lights began drifting away, apparently no longer concerned about Bonnie’s arrival.
“Wait!” she called. “I’m not an ape. I’m human. My name is Bonnie Silver.”
One of the lights turned back. “Have you a tale?” it asked.
“No. I don’t have a tail. I’m human.”
The light rejoined the others, and the group dispersed, floating away like clouds in the wind. They sang a moaning dirge, much like the one she had heard when she first peered down into the crack from up above.
Bonnie felt the constant pull that carried them away, a strange air current that tried to draw everything toward the exiting river. The phantoms floated in the current, resisting at the last moment before it would have plunged them into the river, and they curved back to where they started, only to begin another circuit.
Bonnie moved as far away from the river as she could, inching along the glass floor, pushing against the current. She found a pocket of angled planes carved into a lower part of the chasm’s cliff. It was a cave of sorts, a narrow opening, depressed into the wall and lower than the surrounding floor, a good place to hide in case other ghosts came sniffing by.
Burying herself in the cleft, Bonnie peered out at the slow waltz of swirling specters. She imagined men and apes, rats and rabbits, all meshed in a dizzying eternal torture. Would she be the next victim of the candlestone’s version of hell, joining the everlasting lament in this turmoil of dark despair?
She tried to shake away the sorrow, the agony of hopelessness. She remembered a similar cycle of misery, being passed from foster home to foster home, unwanted, unloved, still aching over her mother’s recent death. And now—
A sob rose in her throat, her light dimming and wasting away in a shudder of weakening flickers. She cried out in her mind, her sorrows pouring forth as her world turned darker and darker.
Where are you, Mama?
Anguish lashed at her, the threat of being locked in a forsaken tomb for an eternity. What could she do but cry? Although no liquid tears fell, Bonnie wept, and the cleansing flow of emotions helped her form a prayer in her mind—a prayer for her mother, for herself, and especially for Billy.
After a few minutes, a gentle breath, a glimmer of passing light, brightened her own. It carried a sense of hope, a tiny spark, yet as real as a candle in a dark room. Somehow Billy would make his way to her side . . . but how could he possibly find her in this hidden dungeon?
The professor limped into the lab, one hand gripping a crutch and the other carrying the glowing Excalibur. Walter and Karen crept close behind.
Dr. Conner sat with his head in his hand, studying the control panel, barely moving a muscle.
The professor whispered to Karen. “Does anyone else live here?”
“Uh-huh. Ashley’s grandfather and a boy named Derrick.”
“Can you take Walter to them?”
She glanced across to the other side of the lab. “Yeah. The boys’ dorm door is open, and— Wow! The Omega door, too!”
Walter shielded his eyes from the laboratory lights. “Where’s the Omega door?”
The professor put a shushing finger to his lips. He handed his crutch to Walter, balancing his weight on his good foot. “Set this down. Go with Karen and close the door behind you. Find them and make sure they’re safe. Lead them back, but don’t come in unless I call.”
“Gotcha, Prof.”
“And go quickly. Don’t worry about Dr. Conner seeing you. I’ll handle him.”
Walter and Karen dashed across the chamber, their shoes clattering on the stone. Dr. Conner jerked his head up and yelled. “Karen! What are you doing? Come back here!” In a flash of motion, he turned two dials on the panel and sprang from his chair.
The professor tightened his grip on the sword. “Halt!”
The doctor spun around. Terror filled his eyes. The professor held Excalibur up in both hands. The glowing blade shot a brilliant beam upward, ripping a hole in the ceiling, and the laser stream pierced the darkness above.