The Invisible Tower (11 page)

He was supposed to be doing something.

He recalled yelling, “Excalibur!” He turned back to the water, where suddenly he found two swords pointing straight up at the sky. Holding them were two light blue hands.

He looked into the water. A girl no older than five or six stared back, her clear, gray eyes open beneath the surface. Her lips, her cheeks, her hair—all were tinted blue. She smiled.

“My, Arthur, how changed is your visage,” she said from under the waves. Artie wasn't quite sure what this meant. “My old friend. Take what is thine. Take both. Hold them.”

Artie said, “Uh, okay. But what about the dragon?”

“Worry not, friend. Take what is thine. All will be clear.”

She lifted the swords higher. Artie reached out and grabbed each by its blade.

Cleomede was cold and ready.

Excalibur was a revelation.

The blade was watered steel and about six inches longer than Cleomede. It had a single blood channel and was inlaid with golden intertwined serpents on both sides. It had Latin inscriptions running along the contours of the serpents:
Tolle me
on one side and
Iacta me
on the other. Its crossguard looked like marbled gold and platinum. Its grip was big enough for two hands and wrapped with fine, bright threads of red and blue. Its pommel was a perfect glass ball. Inside the ball was an orb of deepest black that looked like an eyeball.

As Artie grasped Excalibur, waves of knowledge coursed through him. The information was at once exact and confusing. He saw a young Merlin with the old Arthur. He heard dozens of different languages but could barely understand any. He saw Tom Thumb on the day of his tenth birthday, riding a goose to market. He saw Bercilak challenge any takers to a fight. He saw a young boy he didn't recognize, in a suit of red and blue armor, his great helmet topped with terrifying horns. He saw an owl and a man with the head of a wolf. He saw an army of children and a plain copper cup. He saw a legless man sitting on the edge of a black river. He saw an illuminated blue line surrounded by darkness that went on as far as he could see. He saw Qwon, and Kay, and Kynder, and Lance, and Thumb, and kids from school—even Frankie Finkelstein. He saw Merlin trapped in his invisible tower, sometimes screaming with rage, other times broken by solitude, yet others giddy with revelation.

He suddenly knew some Welsh and a fair amount of Latin.

And he was not sure, but it felt like he knew some magic—how to make a fire without tinder, how to heal a wound. He knew the names of plants and flowers, and some of their uses as poisons or cures.

Most important to the situation at hand, he now knew a lot more about fighting with swords.

The sword's spell was broken as the girl cooed, “Excalibur has revealed much to you, young Arthur. It will reveal more to you in time.”

Artie wasn't sure if he was excited about this or terrified. Still, he thought learning more stuff in this way would be pretty cool. It sure beat sitting in class.

Then the girl said, “Do not forsake thy companions.”

He turned back to the drama unfolding in ultraslow motion. They had moved a little, but were basically in the same places. The only weird thing was that all four of them—Thumb, Vorpal, Kay, and even the serpent—had turned their heads toward Artie slightly.

Artie reached behind him and put Cleomede in Kay's hand. She'd be happy for that when things sped back up.

He returned to the Girl of the Lake and asked, “What do I do now?”

“Hold high the brand.”

“The brand? What brand?”

Her hands slowly sank. She was going back under. Her smile was gone. Her last extended fingertip submerged. At the same moment she winked and whispered fiercely, “Now!”

The violence of the rocking boat nearly threw Artie overboard. He got a swift hit to the gut as he slammed against the gunwale.

Kay yelled, “What the?”

The dragon writhed above them. It gurgled a foul rumble deep in its throat.

Thumb screamed, very much to the point, “What did she tell you to do?”

“How did Cleomede—” Kay shrieked, more to herself than anyone in particular.

Artie yelled, answering Thumb, “She said, ‘Hold high the brand'!”

“Do it then, boy!”

“What's a brand?”

“The firebrand! Excalibur! The
sword
!”

Of course! The sword!

He thrust Excalibur up high.

The dragon reared. A hot wind wafted from its underside like a punch in the face. It reminded Artie of getting hit by Finkelstein.

Curse that Frankie Finkelstein! Even now, at the height of peril, Artie couldn't shake him!

Then Excalibur shuddered. He looked up. The glasseye pommel of his new sword glowed white.

The dragon extended its neck at Artie. Black, crinkly smoke began to waft from its nostrils.

Then, just as the serpent gathered itself to strike, Artie understood. He thought of light. He thought of the sun, the moon, fireworks on the Fourth of July.

Light danced off the blade in a blinding blast. Artie shut his eyes, but he still saw the light through his lids.

The dragon squealed. This time it sounded afraid. It slithered in the air and retreated a hundred feet instantly. It cried again, and the noise echoed over the Lake.

Excalibur was alive. It released another pulse of blinding light before extinguishing itself.

Artie opened his eyes. The dragon was flying away. After a few moments it stopped, turned, and looked directly at Artie. It let out a small, defeated whimper that drifted down to them. Artie knew that the creature was disappointed.

Before they knew it, the beautiful monster was gone. The air calmed, and the sweet smell of the Lake and the woods returned.

They sat in the boat for several moments without speaking, just breathing, just trying to piece together what had happened.

Finally Kay asked, “How did you move that fast, Artie?”

“What do you mean?”

Thumb said, “My boy, you were like a blur.”

“I don't know. Everything was super slow-mo to me. I think the Girl of the Lake did it.”

“The
Girl
, you say?” inquired Thumb.

“Yeah, the Girl. She was only five or six.”

“My goodness.” Thumb chuckled. “She was much older than that, I assure you, lad.”

Kay let out a deep breath and cracked her neck. “Well, however it happened, that was pretty awesome, Your Highness.”

Artie was happy to hear Kay sound like her old self, but was also completely exhausted. He slumped in his seat. He'd just scared off a dragon so big it could have nested on a football field. His eyes burned and his head hurt. But Artie had to agree. “Yeah, it
was
pretty awesome, wasn't it, Sir Kay?”

“Let's get back to shore,” Thumb said as he wrangled Vorpal, who was still raring for a fight, into the bottom of the canoe. “I think we've had enough excitement for today. Kay, help me paddle. Artie can rest.”

Kay felt that her brother was totally whipped. “Good idea, Tommy. Take a load off, Art. We'll get you home.”

“Okay. Thanks, guys.”

They paddled, and the sun warmed their backs. After a while the trees around the Lake shook to life again, and the passenger pigeons, free of predators, took back to the sky like a living, moving confetti storm.

The flock was so huge that, once it got going, it looked as if it had no beginning, and no end.

They pulled back to shore
, stowed the canoe, and retraced the trail they'd bushwhacked around the Lake. Their minds raced, so they didn't talk much until they got back onto the road.

Breaking their silence, Kay asked, “So what's the deal, Tommy—the pigeons, the giant bird, the chestnut tree—those are all things that are more or less extinct on our side, right?”

Thumb said, “That's right, Kay. As Merlin said, over the centuries some species have sought refuge here as they went extinct over there.”

“Does that mean there's dinosaurs and stuff over here?” Kay wondered.

“No, no, my dear. It was a major extinction event that killed the dinosaurs. The same extinction event killed many here as well. The worlds share the earth, remember; it's just that the earth is more layered and subtle in its presentation of reality than most believe it to be.”

“What about dragons?” Artie asked as they walked. “Did they used to live on our side?”

Thumb raised his eyebrows and said, “Dragons are a different matter. They only come from here. Here they are very real. There, they live only in the imagination.”

Artie frowned and said to himself, “Man, that's kind of how I feel right now. Both real and not so real…”

A roll of thunder gurgled behind them. They stopped momentarily and saw a dark, low cloud gathering in the distance. They could just make out the moongate down the road.

As they walked on, an idea popped into Kay's head. She asked, “So if things leave there and come here, does that mean that sometimes people who go missing over there end up here?”

Thumb said simply, “Not often, but it has happened. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, no reason. Just trying to get a handle on things.”

Thumb glanced sidelong at Kay. He could tell that was not the real reason Kay was so curious. They carried on toward the portal.

But Artie knew full well why Kay had asked. It was because of her mom. He knew that behind all the wisecracks and one-liners, Kay was really a big softie when it came to her mom. In fact, Artie had begun to suspect that all the wisecracks and one-liners were compensating for the fact that Kay was kind of crushed by her lack of a mother. Needless to say, this made Artie sad. What made him even sadder was the knowledge that he had something to do with her flying the coop. Artie was starting to feel like he wanted to know what had happened to Kay's mom almost as badly as Kay wanted to, which on top of everything else (knowing a wizard, being a genetically engineered king, owning the coolest sword ever) was also a new feeling.

It was all a part of being the new Artie Kingfisher, he figured.

Speaking of the new Artie Kingfisher, he had a strong, inexplicable urge to get into a sword fight. As they reached the moongate, he said pointedly, “Tom, will you fight me?”

Shocked, Thumb asked, “Excuse me, lad?”

“Will you fight me? You know how to use that thing, right?” Artie pointed at the Welsh
wakizashi
.

“Of course I do. I am a master of the bladed arts.”

“Then let's do it.”

Kay interrupted, “Artie, have you gone off your rocker?”

“Maybe. I don't know. Excalibur did something to me. No, Excalibur did a
lot
of things to me. I need to see if some of them work.”

“What do you mean?” Kay asked.

Artie looked around. He said, “I mean, like—you see those plants over there? I know all of them. That's witch hazel, those are Dutchman's-breeches, and that's red trillium. That bright orange one only grows here. It's called adder's nest. If you boil its roots in sheep's milk, you get a really nasty poison.”

“Wow,” both Kay and Thumb said.

Artie held up Excalibur. “See these words?” Kay leaned in to look at the blade's inscriptions. “They're Latin, and I can
read
them.
Tolle me
means ‘Take me up,'
Iacta me
means ‘Cast me away.'”

Kay leaned back. “Far out, Your Kingliness.”

“On top of all this, I also think I know how to fight, like, pretty well. With a sword. So, Tom? Wanna spar a little?”

The storm cloud grumbled again. Thumb looked to the sky as he said, “I'm not sure our wizard would approve, lad. Besides, I'm a little concerned by this storm.”

On cue, a deafening
crack
of thunder rode its arc of lightning to the ground, splitting a nearby pine tree to its roots. Kay jumped. Vorpal reared and turned two quick circles, looking for something to strike at.

They could tell that it would be pouring in a matter of minutes.

“We have to go. I really think we have to go now, lad!” Thumb said with sudden urgency.

Artie said, “You're right. Let's get out of here.”

They quickly stepped through the pale light of the moongate, and it frittered away like a dying sparkler as they found themselves back in the woods of Peebles, Ohio.

Where the wind was going crazy! Leaves and twigs and dirt swirled in the air, and it was much colder than when they'd left.

Lance clutched his ridiculous Robin Hood hat with one hand while holding on for dear life to a sturdy tree with the other. “Glad to see you!” he screamed hoarsely. “We need to get going! This storm came from nowhere!”

Artie picked up Vorpal and Thumb, who had shrunk back down. He slid Excalibur under his belt and grabbed Kay's hand. Thumb sounded scared as he yelled, “Follow Lance!”

They did.

They emerged from the woods to a terrible sight. Artie couldn't be sure because he'd only ever seen them on the Discovery Channel and YouTube, but he had a sinking feeling that they were about to be hit by a tornado.

Kynder was on the far side of the serpent's head. His clothes were practically being torn off by the wind. He screamed for Artie and Kay.

“Dad, over here!” Artie and Kay yelled.

Kynder saw them and started to move toward them.

“Stay there, we're coming,” urged Lance, holding up his hand.

Kynder grabbed a tree. Suddenly he looked more confused than afraid.

Because here, duckwalking against the tempest, came a sight his eyes couldn't understand. His children were with a ridiculously attired young man holding a compound bow who was trying to protect them from the storm, which was pretty nice of him. Artie and Kay looked normal enough except that they—were they both carrying
swords
?