The Otherworldlies (26 page)

“That’s disgusting,” Sam said, sticking his tongue out.

“Things were different. Trust me, it was less weird back then. Anyway, his wife, Rhea, decided to trick him into sparing one of the children—Zeus.”

“I’ve heard of Zeus,” Sam said.

“Everyone’s heard of Zeus,” Lindsey said, rolling her eyes. “Are you going to let me finish or what?” She continued, “They dressed a rock up in Zeus’s clothes. Cronus swallowed it, thinking he had polished off all his children and had nothing to worry about anymore. That rock he swallowed was the Omphalos Oracle!”

“What happened to the stone after that?”

“He threw it up and the stone took on all these magical powers. That’s where the stone came from!”

“That’s ridiculous,” Sam said.

“What happened to Zeus?” Fern asked, ignoring Sam.

“He went on to overthrow Cronus, just like the prophecy said. They called Zeus and all his friends the Olympians. There was a big war, the Titanomachy. Eventually the Olympians and Titans were forced underground by Normals.”

“What are you trying to say? That Zeus was a
vampire
? That all those gods were vampires?”

“No, of course not. But they’re ancestors of ours. It’s why all our special capabilities are named the way they are.”

“What does all that have to do with Fern and the rock?” Sam said, fussing nervously with his blond hair.

Lindsey’s eyes lit up. “Well, Zeus overthrew his father, but not before Cronus had a chance to curse the Omphalos. Most people believe that if a person invokes Cronus on St. George’s Day with the stone in hand, they can make any Otherworldly completely mortal.”

“Mortal?” Sam questioned. “Isn’t everyone mortal?”

“No, I mean that the person’s powers are taken away,” Lindsey said.

“Including mine,” Fern said with straight face.

“So let me get this straight,” Sam said, furrowing his brow. “You’re saying that Vlad is planning to come to San Juan Capistrano tomorrow, on St. George’s Day, and collect the Omphalos from Pirate’s Cove so he can use the curse on Fern.”

“He wants the Omphalos more than he wants to kill Fern, I’ll bet—but yes, that’s what I would guess.”

“Why would he want to kill me?”

“Because you’re a threat.”

“Wouldn’t he have killed me already, then?”

“Maybe he couldn’t before.”

“I still don’t understand what we think we’re going to do about it,” Fern said. Was Vlad really lying? “Why don’t your parents protect the rock?”

“They don’t know where it is! They don’t know Vlad is after it!”

“Then maybe we should tell them,” Fern said.

“We can’t do that now. If Vlad doesn’t show up, we’ll all look like liars and fools,” Lindsey said. “And word might get out about where the rock is. There’s a reason it’s been buried for so long.”

Sam stood up and faced Lindsey. Clenching his fist, he took on a look of grave determination. “Well then, if he does show up, we’ve got to get that rock before he does!”

Chapter 21
the swallow cemetery

M
rs. McAllister slept soundly knowing that for the first time in weeks someone else was looking out for her daughter. Mr. Lin was to arrive around midnight and act as sentinel from a post outside in his car until morning. Mrs. Lin would relieve her husband and walk the children to school. The Lins, Mrs. McAllister was certain, could be counted on. They wanted to help and, more important, they had been proactive about it.

When Mr. Lin arrived at a quarter to midnight, he had no idea that Fern and Sam had already snuck out the window, climbing down the jacaranda tree over an hour before his arrival. As Mr. Lin settled into his post, prepared for a long vigilant night, things outside the house were quiet.

Meanwhile, Lindsey, Sam, and Fern were weaving silently through the grove’s rustling orange trees. Had the Commander or the Lins known that their children, far from being safe in their beds, were busy at work on a plot to save Fern from the hands of the most feared Blout on the planet, surely they would’ve been worried sick. Perhaps, though, they were fortunate in their ignorance.

The San Juan Capistrano night was warm and clear, its black construction paper sky full of white pinholes. Tonight, against the backdrop of the red-tiled train depot and white-walled mission, Capistrano felt like a drowsy small town.

Fern, Sam, and Lindsey arrived at the grove with two flashlights and three sweatshirts. They silently made their way to the easternmost corner. The grove was quiet and the only light came from the beams of their flashlights.

“AHHH!” Sam jumped up in the air and let go of his flashlight, which went flying into the trunk of a nearby tree.

“What in the world is the matter with you?” Fern said. “You scared me half to death!”

“Gimme your flashlight,” Sam demanded.

“Huh?”

“Your flashlight. Give it to me.”

“What’s wrong?” Lindsey asked with apprehension in her voice.

Sam grabbed Fern’s flashlight. He used the beam to trace his path back to where he had first jumped.

“There.” The beam shone down on a small lump that blended into the caked dirt of the grove.

“It’s a swallow,” Fern said quietly.

“It’s a
dead
swallow,” Sam said. He moved the beam of the flashlight to the orange tree a half foot away from the bird.

“I think it flew into that tree and died from the impact,” Lindsey said.

“There’s another one over here,” Fern said, shining the beam low to the ground as she inspected it for more bird corpses.

Lindsey ran in the opposite direction with her flashlight. “Guys! There are two more over here!”

“Oh no,” Sam said, his eyes wide with fright. He went over to Lindsey. “They’re all over the place. But why would they fly into the trees?”

“Because Vlad is in town,” Fern said. Her stomach lurched. Though she dreaded seeing Vlad again, in the back of her mind, she was curious. He might have more answers. He might not be all bad, and maybe he would tell her more about her real mother.

“Oh yeah,” Lindsey said. “When Vlad transmorphs, birds in the area begin to act in all sorts of demented ways.”

Sam gasped. “Oh man.”

Fern closed her eyes and took a deep breath, all the while wishing for strength. Sam wondered when they would find time to bury and hold appropriate memorial services for all the dead swallows.

They walked gingerly through the grove, nearly tripping over several more swallows, all of which had seemingly died in the same bizarre manner. Once in front of the Sagebrush, the threesome settled in for what they all knew would be a long, tense night.

They had decided to take turns watching the Sagebrush. If Vlad did show up there, then they would call the Lins and have them notify the Alliance’s network of vigilantes. They had already decided on a hiding place for Fern where nobody would find her. Even if he did manage to get the rock, Vlad wouldn’t get very far with the cove surrounded.

Though the children watched the Sagebrush’s images intently, there was no activity at the beach. The full moon lit the sand and cave with the brightness of a spotlight.

All three children were awash with nervous energy. The grove had taken on a positively spooky quality with the dead swallows and darkness surrounding them. Sam kept looking around, afraid that Vlad might appear in the grove at any moment.

“Are you scared?” Sam asked Lindsey.

“I wasn’t before this place turned into a bird cemetery. It’s pretty creepy,” she said, looking around the ground for more dead swallows.

A horn blew twice in the distance. The last train was leaving the San Juan Capistrano depot for the night. That meant it was a few minutes to midnight—the official beginning of St. George’s Day.

Fern, Sam, and Lindsey moved closer to the epicenter of the Sagebrush. They tensed instinctively, searching Pirate’s Cove for something—anything—out of the ordinary.

“There!” Lindsey said, putting her finger so close to the white circle that she sent a ripple through the image.

“What?” Sam said.

“In the far corner of the beach. That man! It must be Vlad.”

“Fern, is that him?” A tall, slender man in coattails strode across the beach toward the westernmost cave. The gold watch on his left wrist gleamed in the moonlight.

Fern took a breath. “Yes,” she said. Sam and Lindsey pulled their faces closer to the image to get a better look. They’d never seen Vlad before.

“We’ve got to find Mr. Kimble. And tell my parents!” Lindsey said. “Let’s check Kimble’s Sagebrush and see if we can find out where he is. If he’s at his office, Fern can teleport there!” Lindsey was nearly frantic. “Fern, stay here for a second and yell at us if Vlad makes any sudden moves.”

Lindsey and Sam ran down the line of Sagebrushes. Fern hesitated a minute. Because Sam and Lindsey had run off with the two flashlights, the only light in her corner of the grove was the blue glow of the Sagebrush. Though Sam and Lindsey were still close, she could no longer see them. She could only make out the white burn of their flashlights. She studied Vlad intensely.

She jumped when she heard several loud thumps come from Lindsey and Sam’s direction. She whipped her head around toward them. The light from their flashlights disappeared completely. What sounded like dozens of feet pounding dirt echoed through the grove. Fern tensed.

“Lindsey?” she said. “Sam?”

No answer. She raised her voice to a yell. “LINDSEY! SAM!”

Still no response. Where could they have gone? She ran across the row of trees. As she made the dash, her foot caught on a root. She fell hard to the ground. Her head landed right next to a small round object. She scooted closer to it.

“Ugh!”

Fern’s face had landed two inches away from another dead bird. She jumped up, full of terror.

“Sam?!?” she repeated. Her heart was pounding now and her head was spinning. She knew there was no way that Sam or Lindsey would play such a cruel game of hide-and-seek on tonight of all nights. They were gone. But where?

Brushing the dirt off her knees, she looked at her hands. Her palms were bleeding, but she couldn’t feel any pain. The only thing she could focus on was how terribly alone she was.

She walked, more carefully this time, toward the other Sagebrush. In the darkness, she counted off the right number of trees. Starting from the middle of the trunk, she made her way down to the base of the eleventh orange tree. She recognized the pointed leaves of the other Sagebrush of Hyperion. Lindsey had not awakened the plant, which was completely lifeless. Fern crouched next to the plant and rubbed it furiously. A few white flowers fell from the plant. She was destroying it. Taking a deep breath, she tried again, this time more gently.

“Please work,” she said, hoping that if she found out where Alistair Kimble was, she might be able to ask him for help. Fern, thoroughly working over the plant, wasn’t getting so much as a crackle out of it. Vlad was probably seconds away from getting the stone. His next task, of course, would be finding Fern.

Worse yet, her brother and Lindsey were missing.

She put her head between her knees and tried to think. She must. Getting up, she resisted the urge to kick the uncooperative Sagebrush and began running. She ran through the grove back toward the McAllister house. Her legs were tired, but her fear carried her swiftly home.

Once she was in sight of the McAllister house, she walked up the middle of the street, hoping Mr. Lin would catch sight of her. There were two cars parked on the street and both were empty. Fern panicked. Where was Mr. Lin? She was gasping for air, trying not to let the dread overwhelm her lungs. She ran to the jacaranda tree and climbed, wasting no time by leaping in the window from a branch. She ran down the hallway to Sam’s bedroom. He wasn’t there. She bounded into Eddie’s room. It was empty too. With no other choice, she burst into the Commander’s room. Her bed was unmade but empty.

“Mom?”

Again, no answer. Every one of the McAllisters was now unaccounted for. Fern fought back tears. She ran back to her bedroom. Sticking her head out into the night air, she looked up and down the street. The streets of San Juan were placid.

What if there was no one to protect her? What if this was the last she ever saw of her family? What if they were dead?

Fern closed her eyes, trying to calm the terror bubbling up inside her.

What if the entire thing was a big distraction to keep Fern away from monitoring Pirate’s Cove? What if Vlad now had the rock? She’d left her post in the grove! No one was watching!

Dead tired but determined, Fern burst out the front door. She paused, out of breath. Whether it was force of habit or because she was so alarmed she couldn’t think straight, she’d forgotten she could easily teleport back to the grove. She leaned against the tree, closed her eyes, and pictured the grove, now littered with dead swallows.

Once she was back at the grove, it didn’t take Fern long to locate the Sagebrush, which was still glowing with blue light. She headed straight for it, without giving any thought to where she was stepping or what she was stepping on. She stopped in front of the image of Pirate’s Cove, still bright and clear. There was now a fire glowing to the right of the cave. Fern focused on the image. A group of people circled the fire. As Fern drew closer, she could make out the circle more clearly. Every person was covered from head to toe with a brown cloak. They looked like friars except for the fact that each cloak had one black handprint on the back.

When Fern spotted Sam and Lindsey, tied together near the fire in the center of the circle, her knees buckled and she almost dropped to the ground. Their heads hung limp, their eyes were closed, and their ankles and hands were bound with rope. They sat back-to-back, and the only life on their faces were the shadows created by the dancing flames of the fire. She covered her own mouth to keep from crying out.

Fern leaned toward the Sagebrush, searching for Vlad. He stood on the outside of the circle, observing as the group closed in on Sam and Lindsey. He walked away from the group.

Instinctively, she zeroed in on one of the stones jutting out from the beach, realizing what she must do.